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Football in Palestine has been on pause since October 7th, 2023. Leagues in Gaza and the West Bank have not played a match since then and with the land borders closed and the West Bank descending into chaos, the national team was forced to withdraw from the Merdeka Cup.
The friendlies against Tajikistan and Malaysia/India were supposed to be Makram Daboub’s final chance to test and tinker before the start of World Cup qualifying. The matches slated for October and November were also meant to provide players with a platform to showcase their abilities and continue to build fitness.
By all accounts the preparations now will be less than ideal heading into a crunch set of World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon (November 16th) and Australia.
A disaster scenario has been averted with the team having finally left the country this past Monday thanks to the intervention of Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan who also serves as the country’s FA President.
In Jordan, the team will train in the hopes of being able to recover whatever fitness was lost during the unplanned hiatus. Jordan, however, will not be their home away from home when they host Australia on November 21st. This was in spite of Prince Ali bin Hussein’s warm reception of the team and his readiness to host the match against the Socceroos.
Palestine will instead play against Australia in Kuwait. Sources close to Football Palestine have confirmed that chief amongst Jibril Rajoub decided to spurn the historically partisan support of fans in the Kingdom due to the fact that Al-Wehdat Ultras had chanted against Mahmoud Abbas during their AFC Cup match vs Al-Kahrabaa.
Final negotiations are also taking place for a friendly against Yemen in Saudi Arabia on November 11th which will be a final audition for the WBPL-based 20 man squad. From there, Makram Daboub will cut the squad down and call up several foreign based players before traveling to Dubai to face Lebanon in Sharjah Stadium- site of their 2019 AFC Asian Cup opener.
