Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium is an
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
stadium on Dahiat al'Barid Street in
Al-Ram
Al-Ram ( ar, الرّام), also transcribed as Al-Ramm, El-Ram, Er-Ram, and A-Ram, is a Palestinian town which lies northeast of Jerusalem, just outside the city's municipal border. The village is part of the built-up urban area of Jerusalem, the ...
. It is one of the home stadiums of the
Palestine national football team
The Palestine national football team ( ar, منتخب فلسطين لكرة القدم), controlled by the Palestinian Football Association, represents Palestine in association football. The squad is governed by the Asian Football Confederation ...
. It is named after
Faisal Husseini, a Palestinian politician who died in 2001. The stadium has a seating capacity of 12,500 spectators.
Palestine international matches
On 26 October 2008, the team played
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
in their first-ever home international in 10 years of
FIFA membership. In attendance were FIFA President
Sepp Blatter and Palestinian Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad. On 29 October 2009, the Palestinian national women's football team played its first home international match against Jordan before a capacity crowd at the stadium.
On 9 March 2011, Palestine "played its first ever competitive match at home in the West Bank". It was the second leg of a qualifier for the
2012 Olympic Games, against
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
. Thailand had won the first leg 1–0 in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
; Palestine won the second 1–0 at the stadium, with a goal by
Abdelhamid Abuhabib in the 43rd minute. The draw on aggregate led to a penalty shootout, with Thailand winning 6–5. Attending the match was Prime Minister Fayyad, who described it as a "historic day".
On 3 July 2011, the stadium hosted "the first World Cup game ever to be played at home in the Palestinian territories". The game was the second leg of a two-match encounter against
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, in the
first round of the Asian Football Confederation qualifiers for the
2014 FIFA World Cup. The game was a draw, enabling Palestine to advance to the second round on aggregate. Afghanistan were eliminated.
"Palestinians play first World Cup qualifier at home"
BBC, 3 July 2011
References
{{Reflist
External links
Palestinians make footy history
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The ...
Sport in the West Bank
Football venues in the State of Palestine