Football became popular in Israel at the beginning of the 20th century; it has been widely played in the country since 1912. Football was first played in the Israeli city of Jaffa and the location of play was in the ‘old city.’ Tel Aviv was another popular venue for playing football and the new immigrants coming into the country contributed to the game in Israel. After World War One occurred, football began to become popular once again and it was not until the mid stages of 1928 where an assembly founded the Israeli national football association. The Israeli football league was formed in 1932, which at the time consisted of nine clubs. The Israeli national side started to participate in International matches in the year 1934 on a frequent basis.
Israel’s first official game was a tie against Egypt, in a world cup qualifier, losing 7-1.
Avraham Nudelmann was the first ever Israeli to score in an international match. The state of Israel was created in 1948 and the IFA became the official association of the new national team. Israel’s first match as a new national side was against the United States, however they lost 3-1 to the Americans. They followed that by their first victory, against Cyprus in a friendly. Israel participated in the qualifying matches for the 1954 and 1958 world cup finals; however they failed even to win one match during the qualification process.  
During the 1950’s, Israel also participated in African and Asian tournaments. They faired reasonably well in the 1956 African nations cup as they won two of their three matches, against Hong Kong and South Vietnam. They met Japan in the ‘Asian game’ of 1958, winning the first tie 2-1, however losing the second tie 2-0.