FIFA has announced that the Palestine-Saudi Arabia match of the Asian qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup will be played on November 5, after the Palestinian Football Association gave "full security guarantees" for the tie.
After the newly installed bureau for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers met on Tuesday here under the presidency of Juan Angel Napout, it was decided "unanimously" on Wednesday that the match will be played on November 5 "in view of the agreement made between the two teams last June", Efe reported.
"The two associations had agreed last June to invert the order of the matches and to play the first match in Saudi Arabia and the second one in Palestine," FIFA said in a statement.
"The first match was played accordingly in Saudi Arabia on June 11 while the second one, due to be played in Ramallah on October 13, was postponed following the Saudi Arabian Football Federation invoking a case of force majeure preventing its team from travelling to the Palestinian territories," the world football governing body note explained.
"The Palestinian Football Association has given full security guarantees for the rescheduled match and FIFA has agreed to appoint a security officer who will work hand in hand with the Palestine authorities to supervise the security plan and make sure that the match is played in very good conditions," the statement added.
