Paintsil plays for the Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv
Posted on 06/18/2006 11:24:32 AM PDT by PRePublic
BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Teams | Ghana | Ghana win friends in Israel
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Paintsil plays for the Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv
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Ghana has gained lots of new fans in Israel after their 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Defender John Paintsil, who plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv, waved the Israeli flag to celebrate the Group E victory.
Israel's Sports Minister, Ofir Pines Paz was quick to recognise Paintsil's gesture.
"We have an Israeli at the World Cup. Paintsil's gesture has warmed our hearts and many Israelis have now become supporters of Ghana," Paz said.
Paintsil joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2002 before switching to their city rivals Hapoel.
"I love the supporters in Israel so I decided to take out the flag," Paintsil said.
"I have played for Hapoel and Maccabi Tel Aviv and the supporters there always made me happy so I wanted to repay them."
Fifa spokesman Markus Siegler said the game's governing had no problem with Pantsil's action.
"Its like the mask incident last week when Ivan Kaviedes scored for Ecuador against Costa Rica and pulled a mask over his face to celebrate. Let's not get too petty about this. I think it's fine."
Israeli soccer pundits said Hapoel were looking to axe Paintsil from their line-up for next season but the club might now want to reconsider.
Hapoel issued a statement thanking Paintsil.
"The club is proud of its player John Paintsil, who raised the blue and white flag at the World Cup and in so doing expressed the warm ties between himself, his club and the country," Hapoel's statement read.
Nice gesture on his part.
He knows how unfair it is that Israel is not in the World Cup.
Hey, the Israelis didn't qualify for the final 32. That's why.
Do you know why the Israelis don't qualify?
The preliminaries are regional. Israel should be playing Egypt and Jordan and Iran and Saudi Arabia, etc.
But the Arabs refuse to play against Israel. So are the Arabs considered to have forfeit? Of course not. rules change where Israel is concerned.
Israel is pushed to play the European powerhouses instead.
The issue is why are they in that division.
Why are none of their preliminaries against Arab/Moslem counties who get to the World Cup?
Because the Arab refuse to play Israel and the World says OK and sticks Israel somewhere as to not offend the Arabs/Moslems.
So Iran and Saudi Arabia get to the Cup, but not Israel.
Arab racism.
Israel competes in UEFA with the European teams.
I would guess the Israeli team is quite happy with avoiding away games in Fallujah, Ramallah, Damascus, Jeddah etc. etc.
As an aside: Israel also takes part in the Eurovision song contest. This year, Lebanon was supposed to take part, but they threw a hissy fit when they discovered that Israel also took part, and was ejected.
Resutls of FIFA World Cup European Zone number 4. Israel got third. Second and it could have had a chance to play another second place team for a Germany berth.
France
Switzerland
Israel
Republic of Ireland
Cyprus
Faroe Islands
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