Israel

The Israel national football team until 1948 was named the Eretz Israel National team.

In 1928 the Eretz Israel Football Association was formed and the same year they joined FIFA. When the State of Israel was founded in May 1948, Israel Football Association became the official controlling power.

Eretz Israel made its debut in 1934 FIFA World Cup qualification in the match against Egypt. In the World Cup finals national team appeared only once, in 1970.

The team won the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, in 1968 Israel made its debut in the Olympic Games, where they reached the quarterfinals and lost to Bulgaria.

Before joining UEFA in 1994, the team competed in the Asian Football Confederation, between 1954 and 1974, and the Oceania Football Confederation

In 1974 Israel was read out from AFC and in the 1980s the national team played mostly against European sides. During the 1982 World Cup qualifying campaign they competed with European teams and after that Israel qualified in the Oceania Football Confederation for the following two championships.

Since 1991 the national team have taken part in the European leg of WC qualification and Israeli clubs have participated in European club competitions.

Today the team is guided by Eli Guttman, Arik Benado is the most capped player and Mordechai Spiegler is the team’s top scorer.