Newcastle Utd v Bnei Sakhnin St James' Park, 7.45If Bnei Sakhnin achieve nothing else at St James' Park tonight they will at least secure a place in sports quizzes for years to come. "Who were the first Arab team to play in the UEFA Cup?" will echo around countless pubs, with bonus points awarded for naming the manager in charge of Newcastle United for the first time that night.

"We're going into the unknown," said that new manager, Graeme Souness, yesterday. He admitted to knowing little about the Arab-Israeli side from a small town near Nazareth who have brought a 17-man squad consisting of nine Arabs (all Israeli Arabs, as opposed to Palestinians from the occupied territories), four Jews and four overseas players.

The Israeli Cup winners, coached by Eyal Lachman, a Jew, are so cash-strapped that Newcastle paid for a coach to transport them up the A1 from Heathrow to a modest Tyneside hotel on Monday night. Ostracised by many Arabs from outside Israel and treated with equal suspicion by some Jews and Palestinians inside it, Sakhnin's cup triumph, nevertheless, succeeded in temporarily uniting Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, who both hailed the victory as "inspirational".

Souness hoped a courier bearing a video of Lachman's men in action would arrive last night. "A contact is trying to get me a tape," he said.