WEST BANK: Palestinian soccer team plays Tunisia in a friendly game in the West Bank

Record ID: 252850

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian soccer team plays Tunisia in a friendly game in the West Bank
  • Date: 20th November 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF SPECTATORS MORE OF THE MATCH
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA73AO4AL6N4E5P6NCWALM8E1DG
  • Story Text: The Palestinian and Tunisian national soccer teams play a friendly match in the West Bank town of al-Ram.
    The Palestinian National soccer team played a friendly game on Wednesday (November 18) against the Tunisian team in the West bank town of al-Ram.
    The game ended in a three nil victory for the Tunisian team.
    It is the third friendly match that has been locally hosted at the newly renovated Faisal Husseini stadium. The Jordanian and Chechen teams previously played against the Palestinian team there.
    Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the game with Tunisia.
    "This is a very special message of unity. I feel great joy that our brothers from Tunisia are with us today. All of this encompasses a great message towards unity, which we highly value and appreciate," he told Reuters Television.
    In the past, the Palestinian team would play all their matches abroad, mainly in the Gulf, because the soccer world's governing body, FIFA, has deemed the Palestinian territories unsafe to host visiting teams.
    Tunisian player Issam Jabali secured three goals in the first half of the play-off match.
    "I believe every Arab citizen, every Muslim citizen, hopes that one day they will be in Palestine, on Palestinian land. It is a great feeling and one can not describe our joy for being here in the land of Palestine to join our Palestinian brothers in their happiness and God Willing, their future will be full of happiness and will be better than their past," Hasan Oziliti, Tunisian team manager, said.
    Palestinian spectators filled the stadium, many of them carrying the flags of the two nations to symbolise good relations between the Palestinian territories and Tunisia.
    The local team put up a good fight against the skilled guests, which included top Tunisian soccer stars.
    "We know that the Tunisian team is a very professional team and before they arrived here they had played against France, and the result was 1-1. We were playing with the cheering of the audience and we came down to the pitch with the intention of scoring. But unfortunately, in the first half we had individual mistakes, they made two goals and then another goal, so it was three nil and the match became very tough," said Palestinian player Sajed Karaja.
    Palestinian soccer saw the beginning of a revival in the West Bank in August 2007 with the relaunch of a semi-professional league that had to be suspended after a violent Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 against Israeli occupation.
    Teams from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded by Israel since the Islamist group won a parliamentary election two years ago, have not been able to take part in league matches.
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