Mandatory Palestine national football team

The Mandatory Palestine national football team, also known as the Eretz Israel national football team (Hebrew: נבחרת ארץ ישראל בכדורגל, romanized: Nivheret Eretz Yisrael Bekhadurgel, lit. 'Land of Israel national football team'), represented the British Mandate of Palestine in international football competitions, and was managed by the Palestine Football Association (Hebrew: התאחדות ארץ ישראלית למשחק כדור-רגל, romanized: Hitachduth Eretz Yisraelit Lekhadur Regel, lit. 'The Land of Israel Association of Football').[lower-alpha 1]

Mandatory Palestine
1934–1940
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Eretz Israel
(Land of Israel)
AssociationPalestine Football Association (PFA)
Head coachShimon Ratner (1934 WCQ)
Egon Pollak (1938 WCQ)
Arthur Baar (1940 Friendly)
CaptainAvraham Reznik (1934–1938)
Pinhas Fiedler (1934)
Gdalyahu Fuchs (1938)
Werner Kaspi (1940)
Most capsGdalyahu Fuchs (4)
Top scorerWerner Kaspi (2)
Home stadiumPalms Ground
Maccabi Ground
Maccabiah Stadium
FIFA codePAL
First colours
First international
 Egypt 7–1 Mandatory Palestine 
(Cairo, Egypt; 16 March 1934)
Last international
 Mandatory Palestine 5–1 Lebanon 
(Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine; 27 April 1940)
Biggest win
 Mandatory Palestine 5–1 Lebanon 
(Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine; 27 April 1940)
Biggest defeat
 Egypt 7–1 Mandatory Palestine 
(Cairo, Egypt; 16 March 1934)

The team was founded in 1928 by Yosef Yekutieli, leader of the Jewish sports organisation Maccabi World Union, under the newly formed "Palestine Football Association", so-named in order to qualify for membership of FIFA (which required teams to be representative of the population of their country). It achieved FIFA membership in 1929, despite in practice being an almost exclusively Jewish organisation at a time when Jews represented a minority of the country's population. In 1934 all Arabs involved in the organisation left, as they considered they were being used as a "fig leaf".[2]

The team used to play in the Maccabiah Stadium, Maccabi Ground and Palms Ground, all three located in Tel Aviv. Mandatory Palestine played five official games (four FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and one friendly), before it officially became the national team of Israel in 1948.

History
Mandatory Palestine during its tour in Egypt in 1931.

Football was introduced to Palestine by the British military during its occupation of the territory in World War I. After the war, the sport's development was continued by "European Jews who had been exposed to soccer in their native countries".[1] The Palestine Football Association was founded in August 1928 and applied for membership in FIFA. It was accepted to FIFA on 6 June 1929 as the Palestine Football Association, following an application by the Jewish Maccabi World Union.[3][4] It was the first of 14 sports organisations which absorbed hundreds of leading sportsmen who immigrated in the wake of antisemitism in Europe.[5]

By FIFA rules, the association had to represent all of Palestine's population, and it made formal claims to that effect. In practice, it was dominated by Jewish players and executives, despite Palestinian Arabs forming the majority of the population.[6]

According to Issam Khalidi, "the Jewish leadership" of the association systematically limited Arab participation by ensuring Jewish clubs constituted its majority, imposing Hebrew for official communication, and adding the Zionist flag in its logo.[7] Consequently, the Palestinian Arab players boycotted the national team and, in 1934, the Arab clubs left the association to form the General Palestinian Sports Association.[2][6][lower-alpha 2]

Mandatory Palestine played five international games before the end of the British Mandate in 1948 which resulted in Israel's independence.[9] During those five games, the national team fielded only Jewish players. Three anthems were played before each match: the British "God Save the King", the Jewish (and future Israeli) "Hatikvah" and the opposing team's anthem.[10]

In 1948 the team officially became the national team of Israel.[11]

Players

1934 FIFA World Cup qualification

Coaches: Austria Egon Pollak and Poland Shimon Ratner[12]

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1GK Willy Berger Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
2DF Pinhas Fiedler Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Hashmonayim Jerusalem
2DF Avraham Reznik (Captain) Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
2DF David Weinberg Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
3MF Zalman Friedmann Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
3MF Gdalyahu Fuchs Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
3MF Paul Kastenbaum Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
3MF Perry Kraus Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
3MF Haim Reich Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
3MF Yohanan Sukenik Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
4FW Amnon Harlap Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
4FW Avraham Nudelman Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
4FW Yaacov Zelibanski Mandatory Palestine
Yaacov Levi-Meir Mandatory Palestine

1938 FIFA World Cup qualification

Coach: Austria Egon Pollak[12]

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1 1GK Julius Klein Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
1 1GK Israel Elsner Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
2 2DF Avraham Beit haLevi Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
3 2DF Avraham Reznik (Captain) Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
4 3MF Yosef Libermann Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
5 3MF Gdalyahu Fuchs Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
5 3MF Yohanan Sukenik Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
6 3MF Menahem Mirmovich Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
7 4FW Mila Ginzburg Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
8 4FW Shuka Brashedski Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
8 4FW Yona Stern Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
9 4FW Peri Neufeld Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
10 4FW Jerry Beit haLevi Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
10 4FW Gaul Machlis Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
11 4FW Avraham Nudelman Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
11 4FW Natan Panz Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv

1940 friendly

Coach: Austria Arthur Baar[12]

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1GK Binyamin Mizrahi Mandatory Palestine Beitar Tel Aviv
1GK Asi Asher Mandatory Palestine Hakoah Tel Aviv
2DF Shalom Shalomzon Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
2DF Yaacov Breir Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Haifa
2DF Lonia Dvorin Mandatory Palestine Beitar Tel Aviv
3MF Zalman "Dzampa" Friedmann Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
3MF Zvi Fuchs Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
3MF Haim Reich Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
4FW Herbert Meitner Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Rishon
4FW Zvi "Doctor" Erlich Mandatory Palestine Hapoel Tel Aviv
4FW Werner Kaspi (Captain) Mandatory Palestine Beitar Tel Aviv
4FW Avraham Schneiderowitz Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Nes Tziona
4FW Gaul Machlis Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv
4FW Peri Neufeld Mandatory Palestine Maccabi Tel Aviv

FIFA World Cup record
Mandatory Palestine's FIFA World Cup record Qualification record
Host(s) and year Round Pos Pld W D L GF GA Squad Outcome Pld W D L GF GA
Uruguay 1930 did not participate did not participate
Italy 1934 did not qualify 2nd of 2 2 0 0 2 2 11
France 1938 2nd of 2 2 0 0 2 1 4
1950–present See Israel national football team See Israel national football team
Total Best: N/A 0/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 — Total 4 0 0 4 3 15

Results
16 March 1934 1934 FIFA World Cup qualification Egypt  7–1  Mandatory Palestine Cairo, Egypt
  • Mokhtar 11', 35', 51'
  • Taha 21', 79'
  • Latif 43', 87'
 Report
Stadium: British Army Ground
Attendance: 13,000
Referee: Stanley Wells (England)
6 April 1934 1934 FIFA World Cup qualification Mandatory Palestine  1–4  Egypt Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
 Report
Stadium: Palms Ground
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: Frederick John Goodsby (England)
22 January 1938 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification Mandatory Palestine  1–3  Greece Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
 Report
Stadium: Maccabi Ground
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: Mohammed Youssef (Egypt)
20 February 1938 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification Greece  1–0  Mandatory Palestine Athens, Greece
Vikelidis 88' (pen.) Report Stadium: Stadio Leoforos Alexandras
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: Mika Popović (Yugoslavia)
27 April 1940 Friendly Mandatory Palestine  5–1  Lebanon Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
16:00 UTC+3
Report
Stadium: Maccabiah Stadium
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: John Blackwell (England)

See also

Notes
  1. According to the Israel Football Association, the name of the association was "Eretz Israel Football Association".[1]
  2. Richard Henshaw's encyclopaedia also noted that "Islamic beliefs throughout the Arab world resisted Western cultural institutions such as soccer until well after World War II, by which time Arab participation in the development of Israeli soccer was nearly impossible."[8]

References
  1. Henshaw 1979, p. 387.
  2. Mendel, Yoni (1 May 2015). "The Palestinian soccer league: A microcosm of a national struggle". +972 Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2020. The result was the birth of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) and the launch of the local league. It was not particularly equitable: Nine Jewish clubs and one British club (that of the British police) participated in the champions league, while the Arab clubs played only in the secondary league. Neither was the representation in the federation exceptionally fair: among the 15 members of the federation, 14 were Jewish and only one, the Jerusalemite referee Ibrahim Nusseibeh, was Arab. The inaugural meeting of the PFA, in 1928, was the first and last meeting which Nusseibeh attended. In 1934, in keeping with the prevailing segragationist trends in the country, the Arab football clubs decided they refuse to continue being the fig leaf within the framework of an overwhelmingly Jewish league, and left. A parallel, exclusively Arab football league was established a year later.
  3. Foundation and Affiliation year in Association Information of Israel at FIFA official website
  4. Foundation and FIFA affiliation years on association information of Israel Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine at UEFA website Archived 2 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Griver, Simon (June 1999). "Sports in Israel". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  6. Sorek 2003, p. 417–437.
  7. Khalidi, Issam (Spring 2014). "Sports and Aspirations: Football in Palestine, 1900–1948" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly. No. 58. pp. 74–89. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020. Immediately after being accepted into FIFA, the Jewish leadership of the PFA set about ensuring a majority of Jewish clubs in its membership. The Hebrew language was imposed and the Zionist flag incorporated into the federation's logo. By 1934, the dominance of Zionist officials meant that Arab clubs had no say in the running of the association, despite Arabs comprising over three-quarters of Palestine's population.
  8. Henshaw 1979, p. 386.
  9. Cazal, Jean-Michel; Bleicher, Yaniv. "British Mandate of Palestine Official Games 1934–1948". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  10. Mubarak, Hassanin. "Palestine – International Results – Details". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  11. "Statistical Kit: Preliminary Draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 28 June 2011. p. 53. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2020. A Jewish delegation from Palestine (then a British mandate) played at the qualifying games for 1934 & 1938. It was the first Jewish national team, and as such the forerunner of Israel.
  12. Cazal, Jean-Michel; Bleicher, Yaniv. "British Mandate of Palestine Official Games 1934–1948". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2020.

Bibliography
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.