By Andrew Warshaw
November 6 – The leader of Palestinian football has accused Saudi Arabia of playing politics and pulling rank after his country was ordered to play a vital forthcoming World Cup qualifier on neutral ground instead of on home soil.
In the past Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub’s anger has mainly been directed at Israel over the free movement of players and equipment in the occupied territories.
But now he has now turned his venom on the Saudis in an Arab versus Arab spat following a lengthy diplomatic saga that came to a head this week with FIFA’s World Cup emergency bureau ruling that the West Bank was not an appropriate venue because of security concerns.
As a result Palestine was mandated to play its next two qualifiers, against Saudi Arabia and Malaysia – both of which could have a bearing over who qualifies for 2018 – on neutral ground. The Palestinians have selected neighbouring Jordan over Dubai for both games.
FIFA said the final ruling, following a number of previous contradictory statements, was taken as a result of a meeting held in Palestine this week after which the Palestinian government itself confirmed that it could no longer guarantee the safety and security around the matches in question. The Saudi Arabia match will now be played on 9 November in Amman with the Malaysia game three days later.
Insideworldfootball understands that the Saudis, who have persistently lobbied FIFA to switch the venue, threatened to withdraw financial assistance to the Palestinians if they didn’t get their way.
The whole saga is an embarrassment to the Asian Football Confederation headed by FIFA presidential candidate Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahima Al Khalifa who chaired the decisive meeting of the FIFA emergency bureau that ruled against the Palestinians playing at home.
The Saudi fixture was due to have been staged at the 12,000-capacity Faisal Al-Husseini stadium in Al-Ram. Rajoub all but accuses the Saudis of blackmail by deliberately taking advantage of the situation in the West Bank and hinted that the AFC had taken a political decision.
“This is unjust and unfair,” a furious Rajoub told Insideworldfootball. “The Israelis are our enemies but we are very sad that some Arab nations are causing harm. This issue was originally resolved in our favour, then the Saudis imposed pressure at political level. It’s a shame they would do this to their brothers. They know they stand a better chance of winning the game if it is outside.”
Palestinian sources say there has been no significant trouble in either Al-Ram or Dura, where the Malaysian game was to have been played. Rajoub says the Palestinian leadership did not really believe it was unsafe to play in the West Bank but had its arm twisted in sending a letter to FIFA. “They had no other choice. Petrol and dollars work everywhere.”
FIFA’s ruling comes despite mediation efforts at trying to put Palestinian football on the map. “I’m not blaming FIFA for this, rather those who imposed the pressure,” said Rajoub. “But you should ask Salman and his committee why they took this decision. The negative dimension of playing outside rather than in our home will be huge, both in terms of national pride and expense.”
Rajoub said the Malaysians would have been prepared to play in Palestine but had to abide by the FIFA ruling. “They wanted to come but at the last moment they were instructed not to.”
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