As our guest writer David Wiseman wrote recently in an extremely entertaining and informative post about the Israeli national side’s participation in the Asian Cup Soccer Tournament, Israel not only plays an important part in the tournament’s history, but in fact hosted and won the tournament in 1964 in addition to finishing runner up twice (1956 and 1960) and third in 1968. That was in the days when Israel had good relations with Iran and Arab nations commanded little influence in the tournament, until they all ganged up and booted Israel out of the Asian Football Confederation in 1974.
So its simultaneously gobsmacking and predictable that Israel has been completely expunged from the video history of the tournament on the AFC’s official website. Gobsmacking because its chutzpah of the highest level. Predictable because we of course all know better by now than to expect that Israel might be treated with the respect that all other nations expect. Frankly we would have actually been shocked to see them acknowledge Israel’s existence considering the roll call of nations that make up the continent.
You can watch the video here. Notice how at around 26 secs the narrative jumps from 1960 straight to 1968 without mentioning the tournament where Israel won.
Of course its not the first time Israel has been erased from world sporting events as Israellycool has reported here and here. And its a good bet it won’t be the last.
