Sepp Blatter is going to attend,and there are reports Pele will too. The significance of this event didn’t dawn on me till recently.Palestine is slated as the home side,and this time,”home” isn’t just a term used as a formality.In previous qualification campaigns,being the home side meant we had to pay for our opponents accomodations,nothing more.The stadia were almost empty of supporters and our players still had to travel distances,it was a shame that a national team with such a huge fanbase in the territories had to play its ‘home’ matches in other countries.During the last Asian Cup Qualifiers,home games were played in Kweismeh,a suburb of the Jordanian capital Amman.I happened to be in the region and attended the match vs Iraq,we were a couple hundred and the Iraqis were 7 times that…let me tell you,we didnt feel like the home fans.
Now in just a few days,Palestine will play its first international on home soil in a packed stadium,if you told me this last year,I wouldn’t have believed you!
