International Matches

Web page partially updated 27 July 2018

 FIFA, UEFA and AFC international tournaments.

Involvement of Israeli and Palestinian teams

 This page provides information on the participation of Israel and Palestine in international tournaments: Mens FIFA and UEFA, Womens FIFA and UEFA, AFC; to help plan actions.

  1. Summary

Israeli National team matches.  Below are details of the key matches involving national Israeli teams playing away which provide opportunities for protests.

Date Tournament Opposition / Home Team / Venue
6 September 2018 UEFA European Men Under 21 2019 Azerbaijan
11 September 2018 Friendly Mens Senior team Northern Ireland/ national stadium
20 November 2018 UEFA Nations League Hamden Park, Scotland

Israeli Club team matches. No Israeli teams qualified for the Group Stages of the Champions League in 2017 or the Knock Out stages of the Europa League.

Palestinian matches.  Palestine has qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup finals. (see 8.1)

UEFA Nations League.  This competition will start in September 2018.  It will replace many friendlies that are played at national level; it should give some of the excitement at a national level that the Champions League has a club level. UEFA has identified the four Divisions for the first matches.  Scotland and Norway are amongst the thirteen teams including Israel in Dvision C.  Details are given in section 6.1

 2.      FIFA Men’s Tournaments

2.1    2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup (finals 14 June to 15 July, Russia)

2.1a  Israel’s games

European Qualification Round 1 consisted of seven round-robin, home-and-away groups of six teams each as well as two round-robin, home-and-away groups of five teams each.  Israel came fourth in Qualifying Group G behind Spain, Italy and Albania and was eliminated.

2.1b  Palestine’s games

Due to their FIFA standing Palestine was not required to play in the Asian Round 1 qualifiers which took place in early 2015 but progressed straight to Round 2.  In Round 2 40 teams were divided into 8 Round Robin home and away groups.  Palestine was in Group A along with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malysia, Timor-Leste.

The 8 group winners and 4 best placed runners up progressed to Round 3 of the World Cup Qualifiers.  As a result of comng third in their World Cup Qualifying group, see below, Palestine was eliminated from the World Cup but progressed to the third qualifying round for the Asian Cup  (see Section 8.1).

Team Played Points Qualification
Saudi Arabia 8 20
UAE 8 17
Palestine 8 12 Asian   Cup (third qualifying round, see section 8.1)
Malaysia 8 4
Timor Leste 8 2

2.2    2019 FIFA Under 20 World Cup,

For European teams the Qualifying Tournament is the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, and Israel has already been eliminated. (see 4.3)

2.3    2019 FIFA Under 17 World Cup

The finals of the 2019 UEAF European Under 17 championship will act as the qualifier for this tournament, see 4.5.

2.4    2020 Olympics, Tokyo

No information available as yet.

3.   FIFA Women’s tournaments

3.1    2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, France, 7 June to 7 July

Qualifying Rules.

European qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup comprises two group stages and a play-off round with France qualifying automatically as hosts.

Preliminary round

The 16 lower-ranked nations were drawn into two four-team mini tournaments played from 6 to 11 April 2017. Each mini-tournament was staged by one of the countries and each team played one another once, with the group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the sides first and third in their section progressing.  Israel progressed from this round to the Group stage.

Palestine played in the preliminary rounds in April with Thailand and Chinese Taipei (Lebanon and Guam withdrew) and with no wins, failed to progress from this round.

Group stage
The five teams that progressed from the Preliminary round, including Israel, joined 30 entrants in seven groups of five nations drawn on 25 April 2017 and played from 11 September 2017 to 4 September 2018 on a home-and-away basis. The seven group winners qualify for the finals. The four runners-up with the best record against the sides first, third and fourth in their groups go into the play-offs for the remaining UEFA berths in France. Israel is in Group 7 along with Austria, Finalnd, Serbia and Spain.

At 10 April 2018 Israel have played six of its eight Group Stage matches, have lost seven and drawn one and are bottom of Group 7 with one point and a goal difference of minus fifteen. Therefore, it is possible for them to progress to the Play-offs or Finals even with two games outstanding.

Remaining games are:

Date Home team Away team
7 June 2018 Spain Israel
12 June 2018 Israel Austria

3.2    2018 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup, France, 5-24 August

A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to France who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 15 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. Teams from UEFA qualified via the 2017 UEFA Under 19 tournament and were England, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.   Israel failed to qualify.

Palestine did not compete in qualifying tournaments.

3.3    2018 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup, Uruguay, 13 Nov – 1 Dec  

Teams from UEFA will be drawn from the 2018 UEFA Womens Under 17 Championship (see 7.4)  the finals of which will be played in Lithuania 9-21 May 2018.

Palestine did not compete in qualifying tournaments.  Israel competed in European Qualifiers but failed to progress to the Finals.

3.4    2020 Women’s Olympics, Tokyo

No information available as yet.

 

  1. UEFA Men’s tournaments

4.1    UEFA Nations League

UEFA has introduced an new league to provide more demanding competition at national level, replacing in large part friendly internationals. UEFA says the new Nations League will “create more meaningful and competitive matches for teams and a dedicated calendar and structure for national team football”.

There will still be space for some friendly matches, especially for top teams who may wish to face opposition from outside Europe, as they will have less matches being in groups of three.  Lower ranked teams who have struggled against sides ranked above them will get the chance to take part in more balanced matches.

The Nations League and European Qualifiers will adhere to the existing agreed international calendar so there will be no additional demands on players.

UEFA claim finances are not a driver for this new competition.

  • The competition, which starts in September 2018, will provide four qualifying spots for Euro 2020 and will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent Euro 2020 qualifiers.
  • By virtue of the format, lower-tier countries – the bottom 16 in the rankings – are now guaranteed one of the 24 qualifying slots for the European Championship finals.
  • There will also be promotion and relegation between divisions.

Format of the Nations League.

  • The 55 European national teams were divided into four leagues based on Uefa’s national association coefficient rankings on 11 October, 2017.
  • Leagues A and B, the top two divisions, will consist of four groups of three teams.
  • League C will comprise one group of three teams and three groups of four sides, while League D will be made up of four groups of four teams.
  • In each league, four group winners will be promoted (or play in the Nations League Finals, see below) and four teams will be relegated for the next competition to be played in 2020.
  • The overall Nations League rankings will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent European qualifiers (European Championship or World Cup).
  • The Nations League will also provide four teams which will contest play-offs in March 2020 (see below) to qualify for Euro 2020.
 
League A League B League C League D
Germany Austria Hungary Azerbaijan
Portugal Wales Romania Macedonia
Belgium Russia Scotland Belarus
Spain Slovakia Slovenia Georgia
France Sweden Greece Armenia
England Ukraine Serbia Latvia
Switzerland Republic of Ireland Albania Faroe Islands
Italy Bosnia & Herz’govina Norway Luxembourg
Poland Northern Ireland Montenegro Kazakhstan
Iceland Denmark Israel Moldova
Croatia Czech Republic Bulgaria Liechtenstein
Netherlands Turkey Finland Malta
Cyprus Andorra
Estonia Kosovo
Lithuania San Marino
Gibraltar

 

The draw for the first phase Nations League took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 January, 2018 and Israel was drawn in Group 1 with Albania and Scotland.  Games scheduled are:

07/09/18  Albania v Israel

11/10/18  Israel v Scotland

14/10/18  Israel v Albania

20/11/18  Scotland v Israel

When will the Nations League take place?

  • The winners of the four groups in League A will contest the Nations League Finals competition in June 2019.
  • The knockout Nations League Finals (semi-finals, third-place match and final) will be hosted by one of the four countries, appointed by the Uefa Executive Committee in December 2018.

How will the Nations League affect qualifiers?

  • The top two in each of the 10 qualifying groups for Euro 2020 will qualify automatically. There will be five groups of five teams and five groups of six teams.
  • The remaining four of the 24 places for Euro 2020 will go to play-off winners, comprised of the 16 group winners of the Nations League.

For  further details see: Uefa’s guide to the Nations League

 

4.2    2020 UEFA European Championship (EUROs)

UEFA EURO 2020 will be held across 13 different European cities in the summer of 2020.

Group Matches, round of sixteen and quarter finals;

Munich (Germany) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Baku (Azerbaijan) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Rome (Italy) – three group matches and a quarter-final
St Petersburg (Russia) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Copenhagen (Denmark) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Budapest (Hungary) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Amsterdam (Netherlands) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Dublin (Republic of Ireland) – three group matches and a round of 16
match
Bucharest (Romania) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Glasgow (Scotland) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Bilbao (Spain) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
London (England) – four group matches and a last 16 tie

 

Semi finals and finals

The semi-finals and final of UEFA EURO 2020 will be held at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

 

Qualifying matches for EURO 2020 will commence in March 2019 with countries split into 10 groups of 5 or 6.  The top two teams in each group will qualify for the finals.  The fianl four places will be decided via play-offs between the winners of the 16 Nations League in 2018.

 

4.3    2018 UEFA European Under 19 Championship , Finland (16 – 29 July 2018)

Qualifying Round mini tournments were played 3 – 9 October 2017 and Israel was eliminated following matches with Austria, Lithuania and Kosovo. .

4.4    2018 UEFA European Under 17 Championship , England, 4 – 20  May 2018

Israel progressed through the Qualifying and Elite Rounds to the Finals in England. In the Finals the contenders are split into four groups of four, with the top two from each proceeding to the knockout phase. The Groups are:

Group A: England (hosts), Switzerland, Italy, Israel

Group B: Slovenia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden

Group C: Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Belgium

Group D: Serbia, Netherlands, Germany, Spain (holders)

The Group stage will take place on 4/5, 7/8, 10/11 May, Quarter-finals on 13/14 May, Semi-finals on 17 May and Final on 20 May 2018.  Israel’s Group Stage matches will take place as follows:

Date Teams Venue Kick Off Time
4 May 2018 England v Israel Chesterfield FC 7 pm
7 May 2018 Switzerland v Israel St George’s Park 12.30 pm
10 May 2018 Israel v Italy St George’s Park 7 pm

Full details are given at: http://www.uefa.com/under17/season=2018/finals/index.html#/.  Knockout  matches will be played at Rotherham, Burton Albion, Walsall and Chesterfield.

4.5    2019 UEFA European Under 17 Championship , Ireland, May 2019

The road to the 16-team 2018/19 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals in the Republic of Ireland has begun with the Qualifying Round draw involving 52 of the hopefuls.  Israel, who were in seeding pot B, are in  Group 4 with Spain,  Faroe Islands, FYR Macedonia.  Matches will be played 20 – 26 October 2018 in Macedonia.

The top two in each Qualifying Round Group along with the four third-placed teams with the best record against the leading pair will join top seeds England and Germany in the Elite Round in March 2019.   After that round, the eight group winners and seven runners-up with the best record against the teams first and third in their pool will join hosts Ireland in May’s finals.

The finals will act as Europe’s qualifier for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.  See 2.3

4.6.   2019 UEFA European Under 21 Championship, Italy and San Marino, 16 – 30 June 2019

Israel is in Qualifying Group 5 with Germany, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Azerbaijan, and Kosovo.  Qualifying stages are played 25 March 2017 to 16 October 2018, and play-offs on 12-20 November 2018.   The nine group winners qualify automatically for the finals.  The four runners-up with the best records against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their group go into the play-offs in October 2018 where a couple of two-legged ties will decide the last two qualifiers.

At 5 April 2018 Israel was placed fifth out of six teams with 7 points having played seven out of ten games.  Forthcoming games are:

6 September 2018   Azerbaijan v Israel

11 October 2018       Israel v Republic of Ireland

16 October 2018       Israel v Kosovo

4.7  2017/18 UEFA Club Tournaments – Champions League,  Europa League  and Youth League

UEFA Champions League and Youth League:  No Israeli teams qualified for either League.

UEFA Europa League: Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Hapoel Be’er Sheva qualified for the Group Stages.  Both teams were eliminated in this Stage.

 

  1. UEFA Women’s tournaments

5.1    2021 UEFA Women’s European Championship

Venue and other details are yet to be defined.  Only England has annouced that it will bid to host.

5.2    2018 UEFA Women’s European Under 19 Championship , Switzerland (18-30 July 2018)

Israel progressed to the elite round and were eliminated after coming third in their group.

In odd-numbered years this competition acts as a qualifier for the following year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup (ie the 2017 European Under 19 Championship led to the 2018 Under 20 World Cup), see 5.2.

5.3    2019 UEFA Women’s European Under 19 Championship , Scotland and Georgia (16-28 July 2019)

The Qualifying Round draw has been made and Israel is in group 3 with Sweden, Slovenia and Kazakhstan and will be involved in a mini-tournament in Sweden, 3 – 9 October 2018

This round involves 48 of the record entry of 51.  Spain and France have byes to the elite round and hosts Scotland also have a bye to the final tournament.

The top two sides in every group plus the two third-placed teams with the best record against the top two in their section join Spain and France in the elite round draw on 23 November 2018, with the games between 1-9 April and 10-18 June 2019.  Seven teams will eventually qualify for the finals to join Scotland in summer 2019.

The finals will act as UEFA’s qualifier for the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

5.4    2018 UEFA European Women’s Under 17 Championship, Lithuania (9-21 May 2018)

Israel progressed to the Elite Round but were bottom of  Group 3 and were eliminated.

 

The top three finishers in the finals will qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup from 13 November to 1 December of that year in Uruguay.  See 3.3.

 

5.5    2019 UEFA European Women’s Under 17 Championship, Bulgaria

The draw has been made for the 2019 UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship qualifying round, starting the road to Bulgaria.  Involved in the draw were 44 of the record entry of 47 teams.

Israel is in Qualifying Group 2’s mini-tournament with Norway, Russia, Croatia, playing 19 – 25 Ocober 2018 in Croatia. Germany, and Spain have a bye to the elite round and the hosts Bulgaria have a bye to the finals.

 

The top two sides in every group plus the two third-placed teams with the best record against the top two in their section join Spain and France in the elite round draw on 23 November 2018, with the games in spring 2019.

Seven teams will eventually qualify for the finals to join Bulgaria.

5.6    2017 UEFA Women’s Champions League

No Israeli team is represented.

 

  1. AFC Mens’ Tournaments

This part of the website is to be updated.

The AFC has subdivided all its national teams into three categories according to rankings:  developed, developing and emerging .  Palestine is in the emerging nations category.

The AFC website is not very up to date.  The following reflects what is known at present.

6.1    2019 Asian Cup, United Arab Emirates, 5 Jan. – 1 Feb 2019,  

The finals will be contested by 24 teams in the UAE.  The host nation automatically qualifies and the remaining 23 places have been determined among the 45 national teams through a qualifying competition running from March 2015 and March 2018.  The first two rounds also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the AFC (see section 2.1b above).  In 2015/2016 Palestine came third in the FIFA World Cup Qualaifying group and therefore progessed to the Asian Cup Qualifying Final Round.  Palestine was drawn in Group D and were Runners Up on goal difference, see below.

Group A

  Group D P W D L GF GA +/- PTS
1 Oman 6 5 0 1 28 5 23 15
2 Palestine 6 5 0 1 25 3 22 15
3 Maldives 6 2 0 4 11 19 -8 6
4 Bhutan 6 0 0 6 2 39 -37 0

Palestine’s scores in the Qualifying group were as follows.

Date Home team Away team
28 Mar 2017 Maldive    0 Palestine  3
13 Jun 2017 Palestine 2 Oman       1
5 September 2017 Bhutan    0 Palestine  2
10 October 2017 Palestine  10 Bhutan     0
14 November 2017 Palestine   8 Maldives   1
27 March 2018 Oman      1 Palestine   0

 

6.2    2018 AFC Under 23 Championship,  China, 9-27 January

The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship was the third tournament of the biennial AFC U-23 Championship.

Palestine, making its debut in this tournament, topped its Qualifying Group that included Jordan, Tajikistan and Bangladesh.  It proceded to the Group stage with Japan, North Korea and Thailand, where it came second.  It then lost in the quarter finals to Qatar 3-2.

6.3    2018 AFC Under 19 Championship, Indonesia

Palestine did not progress from the Group Stage.

6.4    2017 AFC Champions League,  (club tournament)

This competition is for the developed group of AFC countries, so there is no Palestinian participation

6.5    2016 AFC Cup,  (club tournament)

This annual international competition is for clubs in the AFC’s ‘developing nations’ category and for qualifying emerging nations.  Two Palestinian clubs have participated in the 2016 competition.  However, two Syrian teams refused to play in Palestine and, unjustly, were both awarded a 3-0 victory by the AFC Disciplinary Committee – the blame being put on Palestine for not finding a neutral venue as instructed by the AFC..

http://www.the-afc.com/competition/afc-cup

 

  1. AFC Womens’ Tournaments

This part of the website is to be completed.

 

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Attachment     Listing of all international tournaments

Most major tournaments for both men’s and women’s national teams are held on a four yearly basis, although the AFC’s Challenge Cup is held biannually.  Club tournaments, such as the European Champions League and Europa League are held annually.

This section gives website references to all FIFA, UEFA and AFC tournaments.

A       FIFA tournaments (including Olympics)

Most FIFA tournaments are for national teams.  These comprise ten men’s and five women’s competitions and include senior and junior, five a side (futsal), and beach football.  Details of the next tournament for each competition can be viewed on the FIFA website:  http://www.fifa.com/fifa-tournaments/index.html and the most relevant are listed below.

Men

2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia, 14 June – 15 July

2018 FIFA Futsal World Cup, Slovenia, 30 January – 10 February

2019 FIFA Under 20 World Cup, venue and timing to be confirmed

2019 FIFA Under 17 World Cup, TBA,

2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Tokyo,

2021 FIFA Confederations Cup, TBA (Asia), FIFA are considering replacement by a new Club World Cup

 

Women

2018 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup, France

2018 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup, Uruguay

2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, France,

2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Tokyo

 

B       UEFA tournaments

Below are details of the various UEFA tournaments for both men’s and women’s national and club teams including the qualifiers for FIFA tournaments with links to the relevant pages of the UEFA website.  Under the “Standings” tab you can see tables and results of the various rounds of each UEFA competition identified on the website plus the regional qualifiers for World Cups.

 

Men’s National

Men’s Club

Women’s National

Women’s Club

3       AFC Tournaments

Men’s national

Men’s Club

Women’s National

Futsal

Others

 

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