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The 'Palestine national football team' is the national team of the Palestinian Football Federation, representing Palestine.^[1] It is not to be confused with the Palestine/Eretz Israel national football team, in British Mandate of Palestine. Both the Israel Football Association and the Palestine Football Federation count the 5 international matches played by PFA between 1934-1940 in their record.
The current Palestine Football Federation was founded in 1962, but wasn't recognized by FIFA until 1998, after the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
It reached an all-time high position of 115 in the FIFA ranking system in April 2006 after seven years of progression from 191st in August 1999. This is considered impressive as the team has no home fixtures, playing most of their games in the Qatar capital, Doha and training in the Egyptian town of Ismailia.

Contents

Difficulties

Last and next games

World Cup record

Asian Cup record

West Asian Football Federation Championship record

AFC Challenge Cup record

Current squad

Notes

Difficulties

The Palestinian Football Federation faces many problems in organising something as mundane as a training session for the entire team because of travel restrictions placed by Israel upon people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the difficulty in obtaining a visa. In addition, there are no proper training facilities in the occupied territories.^[2] As a result, many players in the team are drawn from the Palestinian diaspora, from as far away as Chile and the United States. A major factor for these disparate players is that sport is the only realm in which a Palestinian state is fully recognised.^[3]
Some of the athletes have been directly affected by the Arab-Israeli conflict. Tariq al Quto was killed by the Israel Defense Force,^[4] and striker Ziad al Khourd was banned from travelling and had his house destroyed.^[5]
A film, ''Goal Dreams'' was made about the team attempting to overcome obstacles in the qualification for the 2006 World Cup, who were also featured on the BBC documentary series ''Frontline Football''.

Last and next games

★ 'Last game' 2-0 - Amman - June 20, 2007.

★ 'Next game' - vs World Cup 2010 Qualifying October 8, 2007, Amman, Jordan
- vs World Cup 2010 Qualifying November 18, 2007, Singapore

World Cup record

★ 1930 to 1998 - ''Did not enter''

★ 2002 - ''Did not qualify''

★ 2006 - ''Did not qualify''

Asian Cup record

★ 1956 to 1996 - ''Did not enter''

★ 2000 - ''Did not qualify''

★ 2004 - ''Did not qualify''

★ 2007 - ''Did not qualify''

West Asian Football Federation Championship record

★ 2000 to 2004 - Round 1

★ 2006 - Qualified

AFC Challenge Cup record

★ 2006 - Quarter Finals

Current squad

(May, 2007)
'Goalkeepers':


Leonardo Zamora

Ramzi Saleh

Iyad Dwaima

Abdallah Alsidawi

Rami Samara

Iyad Diri


'Defenders':


Francisco Atura Alam

Bruno Pietro Rojas Pesce

Roberto Adauy Bishara

Hernan Cataldo

Ihab Abu Jazar

Majed Abusidu

Saeb Jendeya

Hamada Eshbair

Rami Rabi

Osama Abu Alia


'Midfielders':


Raul Alejandro Naif

Anas Al-Sharbini

Pablo Andres Abdullah

Patricio Ivan Acevedo Mhena

Imad Zatara

Roberto Kettlun Beshe

Edgardo Montero

Ammar Abu Seleisel

Shaker Assad

Safwan Habaib

Amer Al Abtah

Murad Farid

Mohammad Mansour

Omar Khalil

Fadi Salem

Ahmed Keshkesh

Rafat Abukhater

Ashraf Salama

Adel Al Farran

Farid Alhawajri

Hazem Mohtasib


'Forwards':


Ziyad Alkurd

Fady Abulatifa

Rami Al Hassan

Ahmad Al-Sharbini

Taysir Amer

Wasim Abdulhadi

Akram Alayadi

Nahedd Alashqar

Fadi Bakroon

Notes

1. While serving only the Palestinian territories, FIFA adopted the Palestinian Football Federation as the National Football Association of "Palestine" to avoid being required to make political judgements while a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is yet to be found. For discussion of this vague term, see definitions of Palestine and Palestinian. For a similar situation, see Chinese Taipei.
2. Palestine's football pride
3. Palestine team's World Cup woes Saeed Taji Farouky
4. Palestinian National Football Team prepares for the next World Cup despite difficulties
5. Film documents hardships facing Palestinian football team