Palestine National team prepares for friendly league

Peter Reid's Thailand were one of the star attractions of the upcoming Nehru Cup and All India Football Federation (AIFF) has decided to replace them with Palestine after ‘The Elephants' decided not to send their senior team...

It was revealed to Goal.com that the Indian FA had asked all the participating nations to send their senior sides and only then, their involvement was confirmed. Thereafter, the five nations, apart from India, were named by the AIFF for the Nehru Cup.

Sources close to Goal.com in Thailand has stated on Tuesday that they have no intention of sending their senior side and were keen on giving exposure to one of their junior sides, which didn't go well with the AIFF.

In the past few days, the AIFF has been busy speaking to a few national federations in order to get them to participate in the tournament with the confirmation coming from Palestine, who are ranked 177th in the latest FIFA rankings.

Only two teams are ranked above India in the tournament, namely last edition's finalists Syria (95) and Lebanon (145), who defeated India in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Pal Telegraph