With purely geographical criteria, Israel’s participation in European competitions does not seem completely self-evident. The country is washed by the Mediterranean Sea, but geographically it belongs to Asia, as is the case with all its neighboring countries. That is, Lebanon, Syria and a part of Egypt.
The State of Israel was established in 1948, after the Holocaust and World War II. In the same year, the Israel Football Association (IFA) was founded. It is the successor to the Football Association of Palestine, which was founded in 1928 in territories under the British mandate and included Jewish and Arab clubs. In 1956 the new IFA joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Very quickly Israel began to distinguish itself in competitions such as the Asian Football Nations Cup. He won second place in 1956 and 1960, while in 1968 he was in third place. In 1964, it was the organizing country and even emerged first. In 1972 he was going to take over the event again, but he had to give it up.
Accession to UEFA
The essential reason for leaving the Asian federation was that, as early as 1956, many teams from Arab or other Muslim countries did not want to face the Israel team. The same thing happened in World Football Federation FIFA events. For example, in the Asian zone qualifiers for the 1958 World Cup, Turkey, Indonesia and Sudan refused to play Israel. Finally in 1974 the AFC decided to expel Israel. 17 countries voted in favor of Kuwait’s request, while 13 abstained and 6 voted against.
Since then the Israelis have attempted to operate in other federations, after special permission. In the period 1976-1994, Israeli clubs participated in the Intertoto cup, an inter-club competition of the European Football Federation UEFA, financed by the sports betting industry to make “turnover” and during the summer break of the national championships. From 1992 they began to participate in the rest of the European competitions, while in 1994 the country’s football federation became a full member of UEFA.
The rest of the sports
A similar course was followed by the federations of other sports, which faced reactions. In 1962 Indonesia, the organizer of the Pan Asian Games at the time, refused Israel’s participation, to appease Arab reactions. In 1978 the country was definitively expelled from the organization and for all sports. However, in the period 1954-1974 Israel had managed to win a total of 53 medals in the Pan-Asian Games.
Today Israel participates in the European federation of each sport. This does not only happen in football, but also in basketball, athletics or swimming. So far, the voices of protest, mainly from the Arab world, have not stopped, calling for the exclusion of the country from all federations and all major events. In other cases athletes from Arab countries refuse to face opponents from Israel.
Source: DW
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