Saudi Arabia soccer team refuses to play in Ramallah
Country's soccer association justifies its non-arrival to Ramallah for a World Cup qualifier against Palestinians by citing security concerns, but actual reason is its refusal to go via Israeli crossing. FIFA may expel team from tournament.
After a long saga, the Saudi Arabian Football Association has decided it will not travel to Ramallah for a match against the Palestinian national team that was supposed to take place on Thursday. The match was part of a qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Asia Cup.
Saudi media outlets – all of which are pro-regime – reported that the Saudi FA submitted a letter to FIFA on Tuesday morning notifying the organization of its decision not to take part in the match due to security concerns. The letter claimed that the current situation in the Palestinian territories would be a threat to the Saudi delegation.
FIFA must now decide whether it will pass the matter on to its disciplinary committee in order to rule on a punishment for the Saudi FA, after investigating its reasons for not participating in the match.
The minimum expected punishment would be for the match to be registered as a 0-3 loss for Saudi Arabia, along with a cash fine, if the committee decides that the association's reasons for not showing up at the match are valid.
If the committee decides otherwise, the punishment could be much more severe – including canceling all of the Saudi team's results in the competition.
However, although the Saudis have ascribed their non-participation to security reasons, it is clear that there is another reason behind the decision – namely, the fear that taking part in a match in the territories would be framed as a kind of normalization with Israel.
"We refuse to pass through Israeli crossings and play against Palestine," said the official spokesperson for the Saudi FA in a meeting on October 19. His statement came despite other Arab national teams having already traveled to play in Palestinian Authority-controlled territories.
Notably, the original date for the game was supposed to be October 13. The Saudi FA also refused to travel then and succeeded in having the match postponed with the aim of finding a neutral location, in spite of the opposition of the Palestinian FA and the stance of its president, Jibril Rajoub.
FIFA went back on its original decision to stage the match outside the Palestinian territories, eventually ruling that the game would be played in Ramallah.
Rajoub's insistence that the match take place in Ramallah caused friction between him and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, according to an Arabic-language paper published in London. Abbas has still not forgotten Rajoub's clash with Jordan due to his failure to support Prince Ali bin Hussein in the FIFA presidential elections a few months ago.
