In blow to UAE World Cup hopes, Saudi-Palestine match scheduled for neutral ground

Fifa announced on Wednesday that the match, which Saudi Arabia had pulled out of rather than travel to Palestine, would be played after all, on neutral ground.

A view of the 2018 World Cup qualifying match in Al Ram, West Bank between Palestine and UAE in September. Thomas Coex / AFP / September 8, 2015

Fifa announced on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia and Palestine would play their contested 2018 World Cup qualifying match on neutral ground.

The Saudi football federation had announced on Tuesday they would pull out of the match entirely, in refusing to travel to Palestine for the away fixture in Group A of Asia’s second qualifying round for Russia 2018.

Had no accommodation been made, Saudi Arabia would likely have been handed an automatic 3-0 loss and possibly other sanctions. That would have greatly benefitted UAE, who are second in the group and fighting precarious positioning among the second-placed sides who need to be among the four best to advance to the third qualifying round.

A brief Fifa release on Wednesday, though, said that the Emergency Bureau for the Fifa World Cup Qualifiers, which includes the AFC chief and Fifa presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, had decided to schedule the match after all, on November 9.

The Saudi federation was objecting to travelling to Palestine on security grounds, and the Fifa statement noted: "The decision followed a meeting held in Palestine yesterday between Fifa's security officer and local authorities, after which the Palestinian government confirmed that it could no longer guarantee the safety and security around the matches in question."

The UAE travelled to the West Bank for their away match against Palestine in early September and played to a goalless draw in the difficult Faisal Al Husseini International Stadium conditions.

That result, coupled with a loss to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh last month in the last matchday, has significantly narrowed the path to the World Cup for the Emirates.

As The National's Ali Khaled noted on Tuesday, with the withdrawal, "while the UAE would drop behind Palestine initially, they also now have a better chance of making up ground on Saudi Arabia and taking top spot".

“Mahdi Ali’s side host East Timor on November 12 in Abu Dhabi before travelling to Malaysia five days later as the Saudis face East Timor away. The UAE can make up at least three points on their Gulf rivals ahead of what is likely to be a group decider in Abu Dhabi next March. Palestine also have to travel to Abu Dhabi.”

Fifa, in its announcement on Wednesday, also specified Palestine would need to play Malaysia, for their originally scheduled home fixture on November 12, on neutral ground.

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