In November 2008, Israel and Côte d'Ivoire played a friendly match in Israel - a two-all draw. The two FAs agreed to play the "return leg" in August 2010 in France. However, FIF (Fédération Ivoirienne de Football) decided not to overload its players and canceled the encounter (see the article in Haaretz). The IFA (Israel Football Association) are obviously not pleased with this and have written a letter to Sepp Blatter asking him to force the Ivorians to respect the contract. Probably that's why IFA still have this match on their fixture list.
What the Israelis seem not to know is that they were dumped for a more attractive opponent and probably more money, as Côte d'Ivoire will take on Italy in a friendly set to take place in London on August 10th (BBC and La Repubblica).
Interesting case of selective fatigue.
Top 20 available opponents for August 11th (based on FIFA points Israel would get for a win):
Chile
Portugal
Paraguay
Colombia
Peru
Ghana
Nigeria
Japan
Bolivia
Burkina Faso
Honduras
Ecuador
Costa Rica
New Zealand
Mali
Benin
South Africa
Bahrain
Togo
Uganda
I removed Iran for obvious reasons.
Chile are looking for a friendly in Europe, but it's unlikely they will play Israel so soon after their May 30 match (Israel lost 3 - 0 in Concepcion against La Roja).
We Israelis actually do know that Côte d'Ivoire will take on Italy on August 10th. Part of the agreement was that Côte d'Ivoire will pay all Israelis expanses this time. That's why the cancellation seems unfair.
ReplyDeleteBy Israelis I meant IFA.
ReplyDeleteI think FIFA should force Côte d'Ivoire to play against Israel - of course if they have a firm contract.