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Israel
Nickname(s)	The Blue and Whites
Association	Israel Football Association (IFA)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Dror Kashtan
Captain	Yossi Benayoun
Most caps	Arik Benado (94)
Top scorer	Mordechai Spiegler (32)
Home stadium	Ramat Gan Stadium
FIFA code	ISR
FIFA ranking	26
Highest FIFA ranking	15 (November 2008)
Lowest FIFA ranking	71 (September 1993)
Elo ranking	40
Highest Elo ranking	23 (1976)
Lowest Elo ranking	73 (Feb 1968)
File:Kit body israel home10.png Home colours	File:Kit body israel away10.png Away colours
First international
	Egypt 7 - 1 Palestine ; (Cairo, Egypt; March 16, 1934); USA 3 - 1 Israel ; (New York City, USA; September 26, 1948)
Biggest win
	Israel 9 - 0 Chinese Taipei ; (Wellington, New Zealand; March 23, 1988)
Biggest defeat
	Egypt 7 - 1 Palestine ; (Cairo, Egypt; March 16, 1934)
World Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 1970)
Best result	Round 1, 1970
AFC Asian Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1956)
Best result	Winners, 1964

Israeli team in 1970 FIFA World Cup

The Israeli National Football Team (Hebrew: נבחרת ישראל בכדורגל‎) is the national football team of Israel and is controlled by the Israel Football Association (IFA).

The Israel Football Association was founded under the name Palestine Football Association (PFA) in 1928, 20 years before the establishment of the state of Israel at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine. The PFA was accepted as a full member of FIFA in 1929. The PFA first dealt with local leagues, but later also managed the national team that was created to participate in the World Cup qualifications (participating in 1934 and 1938 as the Palestine/Eretz Yisrael national team). Israel has taken part in three different continents: Asia, Europe and Oceania in the Football World Cup qualifiers, before settling in Europe as a member of UEFA in 1994.

The Israeli side qualified for their only FIFA World Cup to date in 1970.

[edit] History

[edit] Before independence

Palestine played its first official game in 1934 in the World Cup qualifiers losing 1-7 to Egypt. The team's first goal ever was scored by Avraham Nudelmann. Upon the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the IFA became the official association of the new state. The Israel national team's first game as an independent nation was on September 26, 1948, against the USA (result: 1-3 to the USA).

[edit] Asian history

Israel initially competed in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), although due to their ongoing geopolitical situation many Asian nations often refused to compete against Israel. This meant that they mainly competed in European (UEFA) or Oceanian (OFC) World Cup qualifying tournaments. In 1964 Israel hosted and won the Asian Nations Cup. In 1968 Israel went to their first Olympic Games and lost to Bulgaria in the quarter-finals. In 1970 Israel qualified for their first and only World Cup, via Oceania, but only got two points after draws with Sweden and finalist Italy and a loss to Uruguay.

In 1976, Israel went to their second Olympic Games and lost in the quarter-finals again, this time against Brazil. In 1972 and 1977 they attempted World Cup qualification as part of Asia, which both times ended in failure.

[edit] Years in exile

In 1974, Israel was expelled from AFC as their position within it became untenable.^{[clarification needed]} During the 1980s they played their majority of matches against European teams, and competed in the European leg of qualification for the 1982 World Cup. For the next two tournaments they entered the Oceania Football Confederation's qualification groups and in 1989, Israel made it to the playoffs of WC Italy 1990 to play against Colombia, who qualified from the South American group, but lost (1-0, 0-0).

[edit] European history

In 1991 Israeli clubs began participating in European club competitions and Israel returned to the European leg of World Cup qualifying in 1992, notably winning 3-2 in Paris against France in 1993 and 5-0 against Austria in the late 1990's. In 1994, Israel received full UEFA membership, twenty years since they had left Asia. Within Europe, Israel have been a relatively minor nation, though with some successes. In 1999, Israel made it to the playoffs of Euro 2000, but was beaten by Denmark.

In 2006 World Cup qualifying, Israel finished third in European zone Group Four behind France and Switzerland despite being unbeaten in their 10 matches after four wins and six draws, and failed to qualify for the finals. Coach Avraham Grant announced his resignation on 26 October 2005. After the end of his contract he was succeeded by Dror Kashtan. In UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying, Israel finished fourth in group E, behind Croatia, Russia and England. The 3-4 home loss to Croatia was the first loss after 13 consecutive official games and 9 home games without a loss. Although Israel failed to qualify, Israel advanced in the world ranking, which led Israel to pot 2 at the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification draw. The continued presence of the Israeli Football Association in UEFA was a precedent cited by Australia to justify its transfer from Oceania to the Asian Football Federation.

[edit] Competition history

[edit] FIFA World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Round 1	13	3	0	2	1	1	3
1974	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2010	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2014		-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/18		3	0	2	1	1	3

[edit] Asian Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	L	GS	GA
1956	Runner up	3	2	1	6	5
1960	Runner up	3	2	1	6	4
1964	Champions	3	3	0	5	1
1968	Third place	4	2	2	11	5
Total	1 Title	13	9	4	28	15

Israel did not compete in a regional competition between the years 1968 and 1996

[edit] European Championship record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1996	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2012		-	-	-	-	-	-

[edit] FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualification

Team v • d • e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Switzerland	10	6	3	1	18	8	+10	21
Greece	10	6	2	2	20	10	+10	20
Latvia	10	5	2	3	18	15	+3	17
Israel	10	4	4	2	20	10	+10	16
Luxembourg	10	1	2	7	4	25	−21	5
Moldova	10	0	3	7	6	18	−12	3


Greece	–	2 – 1	5 – 2	2 – 1	3 – 0	1 – 2
Israel	1 – 1	–	0 – 1	7 – 0	3 – 1	2 – 2
Latvia	0 – 2	1 – 1	–	2 – 0	3 – 2	2 – 2
Luxembourg	0 – 3	1 – 3	0 – 4	–	0 – 0	0 – 3
Moldova	1 – 1	1 – 2	1 – 2	0 – 0	–	0 – 2
Switzerland	2 – 0	0 – 0	2 – 1	1 – 2	2 – 0	–

Date	Venue	Opponents	Score¹	Competition	Israel scorers
26 March 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Chile	1 – 0	F	Yossi Benayoun
20 August 2008	Ratina Stadion, Tampere (A)	Finland	0 – 2	F
6 September 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Switzerland	2 – 2	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun, Ben Sahar
10 September 2008	Zimbru Stadium, Chisinau (A)	Moldova	2 – 1	WCQ	Omer Golan, Klemi Saban
11 October 2008	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg (A)	Luxembourg	3 – 1	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun, Omer Golan, Salim Tuama
15 October 2008	Skonto Stadions, Riga (A)	Latvia	1 – 1	WCQ	Yossi Benayoun
19 November 2008	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Côte d'Ivoire	2 – 2	F	Elyaniv Barda, Omer Golan
11 February 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Hungary	1 – 0	F	Yossi Benayoun
28 March 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Greece	1 – 1	WCQ	Omer Golan
1 April 2009	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion (A)	Greece	1 – 2	WCQ	Elyaniv Barda
12 August 2009	Windsor Park, Belfast (A)	Northern Ireland	1 – 1	F	Elyaniv Barda
5 September 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Latvia	0 – 1	WCQ
9 September 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Luxembourg	7 – 0	WCQ	Elyaniv Barda, Aviram Baruchyan, Omer Golan, Ben Sahar
10 October 2009	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan (H)	Moldova	3 – 1
14 October 2009	St. Jakob-Park, Basel (A)	Switzerland	0 – 0	WCQ

Key

¹ = Israeli score shown first
H = Home match
A = Away match
F = Friendly
WCQ = World Cup Qualifier

[edit] Current squad

The following players were named for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Switzerland on October 10 and 14, 2009.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
Goalkeepers
1	GK	Dudu Aouate	October 17, 1977 (1977-10-17) (age 32)	45	0	Mallorca
22	GK	Nir Davidovich	December 17, 1976 (1976-12-17) (age 33)	50	0	Maccabi Haifa
30	GK	Liran Strauber	August 20, 1974 (1974-08-20) (age 35)	8	0	Maccabi Tel Aviv
Defenders

6	DF	Dedi Ben Dayan	November 22, 1978 (1978-11-22) (age 31)	21	1	Hapoel Tel Aviv
3	DF	Tal Ben Haim	March 31, 1982 (1982-03-31) (age 27)	49	0	Portsmouth
13	DF	Dekel Keinan	September 15, 1984 (1984-09-15) (age 25)	12	0	Maccabi Haifa
25	DF	Klemi Saban	February 17, 1980 (1980-02-17) (age 29)	19	1	Maccabi Netanya
14	DF	Yoav Ziv	March 16, 1981 (1981-03-16) (age 28)	20	0	Lokeren
5	DF	Avi Strool	September 18, 1980 (1980-09-18) (age 29)	9	0	Lokeren
24	DF	Dean Mori	November 8, 1988 (1988-11-08) (age 21)	1	0	Bnei Yehuda
21	DF	Eyal Meshumar	August 10, 1983 (1983-08-10) (age 26)	4	0	Maccabi Haifa
Midfielders

25	FW	Gal Alberman	April 17, 1983 (1983-04-17) (age 26)	25	1	Borussia Mönchengladbach
4	MF	Avihai Yadin	October 26, 1986 (1986-10-26) (age 23)	1	0	Hapoel Tel Aviv
11	MF	Tamir Cohen	May 4, 1984 (1984-05-04) (age 25)	15	0	Bolton Wanderers
7	MF	Biram Kayal	May 2, 1988 (1988-05-02) (age 21)	11	0	Maccabi Haifa
15	MF	Yossi Benayoun	May 5, 1980 (1980-05-05) (age 29)	75	19	Liverpool
8	MF	Aviram Baruchyan	March 20, 1985 (1985-03-20) (age 24)	8	1	Beitar Jerusalem
16	MF	Gil Vermuth	August 5, 1985 (1985-08-05) (age 24)	2	0	Hapoel Tel Aviv
Forwards
9	FW	Barak Yitzhaki	September 25, 1984 (1984-09-25) (age 25)	10	1	Beitar Jerusalem
10	FW	Elyaniv Barda	December 15, 1981 (1981-12-15) (age 28)	19	9	Racing Genk
17	FW	Ben Sahar	August 10, 1989 (1989-08-10) (age 20)	17	5	Espanyol
12	FW	Itay Shechter	February 22, 1987 (1987-02-22) (age 22)	3	0	Hapoel Tel Aviv

Caps and goals correct as of November 9, 2009.

[edit] Recent call-ups

The following players have been called recently to Israel squad.

Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
GK	Ohad Levita	February 17, 1986 (1986-02-17) (age 23)	0	0	R.K.C. Waalwijk
DF	Rami Gershon	August 12, 1988 (1988-08-12) (age 21)	0	0	Standard Liège
DF	Ze'ev Haimovich	April 7, 1983 (1983-04-07) (age 26)	1	0	Terek Grozny

MF	Gai Assulin	April 9, 1991 (1991-04-09) (age 18)	1	0	FC Barcelona Atlètic
MF	Eyal Golasa	October 7, 1991 (1991-10-07) (age 18)	1	0	Maccabi Haifa
FW	Eliran Atar	February 17, 1987 (1987-02-17) (age 22)	0	0	Bnei Yehuda
MF	Yaniv Katan	January 21, 1979 (1979-01-21) (age 30)	31	5	Maccabi Haifa

FW	Omer Golan	April 1, 1982 (1982-04-01) (age 27)	34	7	Lokeren
FW	Roberto Colautti	May 24, 1982 (1982-05-24) (age 27)	16	6	Borussia Mönchengladbach
FW	Pini Balili	June 18, 1979 (1979-06-18) (age 30)	29	7	Antalyaspor

[edit] Player history

[edit] Most capped players

#	Name	Caps
1	Arik Benado	95
2	Alon Harazi	90
3	Amir Schelach	85
4	Mordechai Spiegler	83
5	Nir Klinger	83
6	Eyal Berkovic	82
7	Avi Nimni	80

[edit] Top scorers

#	Name	Goals
1	Mordechai Spiegler	32
2	Yehoshua Feigenbaum	24
3	Ronen Harazi	23
4	Nahum Stelmach	22
5	Yossi Benayoun	19
6	Yehoshua Glazer	18
=	Giora Spiegel	18
8	Alon Mizrahi	17
=	Eli Ohana	17

[edit] Player records

Main article: Israel national football team records

[edit] Managers

[edit] Palestine managers

Manager	Palestine career	Played	Won	Lost	GF^[1]	GA^[2]	Win %
Shimon Ratner	1934	2	0	2	2	11	00.0%
Egon Pollack	1938	2	0	2	1	4	00.0%
Arthur Baar	1940	1	1	0	5	1	100.0%

[edit] Israel managers

Manager	Israel career	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF^[1]	GA^[2]	Win %
Egon Pollack	1948	1	0	0	0	0	1	00.0%
Lajos Hess	1949	3	1	0	2	5	12	33.3%
Vladislav Scali	1950	2	1	0	1	7	4	50.0%
Jerry Beit haLevi	1953 - 1954	5	0	0	5	1	7	00.0%
Jack Gibbons	1956	5	2	0	3	7	12	40.0%
Jerry Beit haLevi	1957	1	0	0	1	4	5	00.0%
Moshe Varon	1958	5	2	0	3	6	7	40.0%
Gyula Mándi	1959 - 1963	31	12	7	12	49	63	50.0%
George Ainsley	1963 - 1964	3	2	0	1	4	2	66.7%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964	1	0	0	0	0	4	00.0%
Gyula Mándi	1964	3	3	0	0	5	1	100.0%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964 - 1965	3	1	0	2	2	2	33.3%
Milovan Ćirić	1965 - 1968	25	8	2	15	43	45	36.0%
Emmanuel Scheffer	1968 - 1970	24	8	8	8	44	34	50.0%
Edmond Schmilovich	1970 - 1973	19	10	4	5	27	13	63.2%
David Schweitzer	1973 - 1977	36	17	11	8	67	34	62.5%
Emmanuel Scheffer	1978 - 1979	13	5	4	4	17	15	53.8%
Jack Mansell	1980 - 1981	10	2	3	5	8	12	35.0%
Yosef Mirmovich	1983 - 1986	27	8	9	10	39	36	46.3%
Miljenko Mihić	1986 - 1988	20	4	5	11	27	35	32.5%
Itzhak Schneor Ya'akov Grundman	1988 - 1992	18	5	5	8	21	30	32.5%
Shlomo Scharf	1992 - 1999	82	31	18	33	131	118	48.2%
Richard Møller Nielsen	2000 - 2002	20	7	4	9	29	33	45.0%
Avram Grant	2002 - 2006	33	14	13	6	55	37	42.4%
Dror Kashtan	2006 -	19	10	4	5	27	19	52.6%

[edit] External links

The Israel Football Association (official)
Israel National Team - List of "A" Games

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b Goals for / scored
^ ^a ^b Goals against / conceded

[edit] Titles

Preceded by 1960 Korea Republic	Asian Champions 1964 (First title)	Succeeded by 1968 Iran

[Goals_for_.2F_scored-0] Goals for / scored

[Goals_against_.2F_conceded-1] Goals against / conceded

[1]

[2]

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