Palestinians fume after soccer game with Saudis relocated
Saudi refusal to play in the West Bank possibly due to reluctance to pass through Israeli checkpoints
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian soccer’s governing body has said it is “impossible” to accept FIFA’s decision that it must play a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia on neutral territory.
The fixture, set for October 13, had been scheduled to take place in the West Bank, but Saudi Arabia on September 23 demanded that it be played on neutral ground.
The teams met each other in Jeddah in June, with the Saudis winning 3-2.
That match was actually supposed to be played in the West Bank but Saudi Arabia had refused to travel to the West Bank, citing undefined “exceptional circumstances.”
The Palestinians agreed to the switch but had requested that the return fixture, originally scheduled to be played in Jeddah, be hosted by the Palestinian Authority instead, thus essentially reversing the home and away fixtures.
Palestinian FA officials said the Saudi decision could have been due to reluctance to pass through Israeli checkpoints on their way to the game.
On Monday, Saudi media said FIFA had agreed to transfer the October match to neutral territory.
The official SPA news agency said the country’s FA had received the organizing committee’s decision, in which “the international federation understands the justification put forward” by the Saudis to transfer the game.
It did not elaborate on what that justification was.
Many Arab national teams refuse to play in the West Bank, saying it “normalizes” Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Following the FIFA decision, Palestinian soccer association chief Jibril Rajoub said, “Depriving Palestine of the right to play at home is a dangerous precedent and impossible to accept under any condition.”
The Palestinian national team played a qualifier at home for the first time on September 8, holding the United Arab Emirates to a goalless draw at the Faisal Husseini stadium in Al-Ram, near Jerusalem.
The World Cup organizing committee’s decision does not say where the game against Saudi Arabia will be played or explain either the reason for the decision or the Saudi FA’s objection to playing in the West Bank.
Israel controls all access to the Palestinian territories, and Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Cited by the Palestinian soccer association, Rajoub said he would lobby internationally to have the FIFA decision revoked.
But FIFA in its decision said the ruling is “final and binding.”
Rajoub, who had at one point sought to have Israel suspended from FIFA over its restrictions on the movement of Palestinian players, has said that hosting the UAE showed that “Palestine exists and that Palestinians have the right to live in their own independent state.”
Moving the fixture elsewhere would be a double blow to the Palestinians; first for fans of the sport and second, because each international game on soil the Palestinians claim for a state serves the political cause of a state that has yet to materialize.