Saudi Arabia's national soccer team to face Palestinian counterpart in a historic visit

Record ID: 1436471

  • Title: Saudi Arabia's national soccer team to face Palestinian counterpart in a historic visit
  • Date: 13th October 2019
  • Summary: SAUDI NATIONAL TEAM MEMBERS STANDING BEHIND GOVERNOR OF RAMALLAH AND AL BIREH LAILA GHANNAM AND OTHER PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GOVERNOR OF RAMALLAH AND AL BIREH LAILA GHANNAM, SAYING: "This is not a normalisation visit, this is a brotherly, sport, political visit. This visit will be historical and will end the isolation of our people." VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN SECURITY STANDING OUTSIDE OF HOTEL WHERE DELEGATION IS STAYING
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2019 15:14
  • Keywords: Palestinians Soccer Saudi Arabia Abbas
  • Location: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Soccer,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA003B0XJ5MV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Saudi Arabia national soccer team arrived in Ramallah, West Bank on Sunday (October 13) to face their Palestinian counterpart on Tuesday (October 15) in the joint 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Qatar and the 2023 Asian Cup in China.
    Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah received the president of the Saudi federation Yasser Al-Mishal, saying the visit reflected the historical relationship between the two countries.
    The Saudi delegation visit to the Palestinian territories was opposed by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad, calling it a normalisation with Israel, while governor of Ramallah and al Bireh, Laila Ghannam, opposed these statements.
    Saudi Arabia leads the fourth group at the qualification. It also includes Singapore, Yemen and Uzbekistan, with four points it collected from two matches and with one point ahead of the Palestinian team.
    Saudi Arabia drew 2-2 with Yemen before beating Singapore 3-0 on Thursday (October 10), while the Palestinian team beat Uzbekistan 2-0 and then lost 2-1 from Singapore.
    (Production: Suheir Sheikh, Saed Howari, Adel Abu Nemeh)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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