December 17th, 2023: This Week in Palestinian Football

National Team lands in Algeria, Charity match raises over $5.5 Million for Gaza, as 2023 Asian Cup draws ever closer.

Four weeks from today, Palestine will take to the pitch of the Education City Stadium and face Iran. Football Palestine will be there as well. To my knowledge, there has been no other journalist that has attended every Asian Cup match Palestine has participated in. That streak looks set to continue after I was given media accreditation by both the AFC and Hayya.

This venture is a labour of love but it does cost a pretty penny to travel to Palestine, UAE, Australia, Singapore, and now Qatar to cover the national team. So if you enjoy reading and watching this content consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the button below:

Palestinians Abroad continue impressive run of form

Tamer Seyam’s PT Prachuap had to win this weekend or risk falling further behind the pack in the relegation race. Palestine’s vice-captain duly delivered with a goal and another stellar performance. Seyam might be on the worst team of the league but he is without a doubt the that team’s best player. Seyam is not the only Palestinian player shining this season. In the Thai League alone we’ve seen Mahmoud Eid morph into arguably the league’s best player and a career renaissance for Yashir Islame.

Also in Southeast Asia, Mohammed Rashid is powering Bali United to a title challenge much like he did for Persib two years ago. Oday Dabbagh is continuing to score on a regular basis and although his rate might have slowed it should be noted that it took Mousa Al-Tamari two seasons to score four times in the Belgian top flight. Dabbagh did it in 13 games.

Four goals, two assists and another goal in the Cup is excellent production for a forward at a middling club like Charleroi. A good Asian Cup campaign might result in his transfer at season’s end.

In any case, with the tournament so close fans can be confident that the probable starting lineup contains three players at the peak of their powers in foreign leagues (Seyam, Dabbagh, Rashid). Saldaña and Jaber have also been very good this season. Michel Termanini has started every game for Kazma in November and December. You can be rest assured six players will come into camp in tip-top shape. Whomever starts nexts to Termanini will be ready because both Mohammed Saleh and Yaser Hamed have a proven track record.

The other persumptive starters- Hamadi, Al-Battat, Abu Warda and possibly Zaid Qunbar will have camp to get prepared. Read more below:

Charity Match Raises $5.5 Million USD raises for Gaza Relief

Speaking of Education City Stadium. It played host to an amazing charity match over the weekend- an initiative started by four college students drew a crowd of 27,000 (62% capacity) to see the likes Abdelatif Bahdari lead out Team Palestine against Essam El-Hadary and Team Qatar.

Here is the list of the public figures and footballers who participated:

Highlights:

Penalty Kicks:

A robust attendance bodes well for Palestine’s Asian Cup campaign. If the Local Organizing Committee has learned anything from last year’s World Cup it is how to control and advertise ticketing. We saw respectable crowds at the FIFA Arab Cup two years ago (17,000 per match average) and there should be the expectation that that number could be beat. The LOC had announced that the first and second tranches of tickets released were fully sold out.

The other positive point to note is that Palestine wore green jerseys for the charity match. This is how it should be. The red jersey is a monstrosity foisted on the team by PFA President Jibril Rajoub after he assumed power in late 2007. The reason for changing the Green jersey? Green was the color of his political rivals- Hamas.

Palestine 3:2 USM Annaba