Palestine shifts World Cup qualifiers' home venue to Jordan

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) on Thursday chose to host the FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia and Malaysia in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

   PFA chief Jibril Rajoub told reporters during a press conference held in al-Bireh town in the West Bank that choosing Jordan came in response to FIFA decision that both games need to be played on neutral ground. 

   Rajoub added that coordination was made with the Jordanian Football Association to play both games there. 

   He explained that the Palestinian government told FIFA that it can't guarantee the safety and security around the matches leading FIFA to officially decide to move the game outside Palestine. 

   Rjoub stressed that Palestinians abide by the FIFA decision on an "exceptional" basis, "Our right to play at home should not be jeopardized in the future," he added. 

   The Saudi-Palestine game caused a major stir that led to diplomatic intervention between the two states upon Saudi team's refusal to play in the West Bank. The Saudi Football Federation said it won't play in occupied lands controlled by Israel as "Saudi Arabia has no normalization ties with Israel."

   Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to change the venue of the match, Saudi media reported.

   Palestinian sources told Xinhua that Saudi pushed the Palestinian side to say that they can't secure the safety of the teams, to avoid FIFA penalties against them if they withdrew from playing.  

   The UAE football team was the first Arabic team to hold an official game against the Palestinian team in the West Bank early September in a game dubbed "historic".  Endi