February 11th, 2024: This Week In Palestinian Football

With the 2023 Asian Cup in the books the focus for all in Asia turns to World Cup qualifying

Time to look forward. Officially.

If you do not win a tournament the day everyone looks forward to is the day after the final whistle. The slate is wiped clean and everyone can start over again. Due to the particularity of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, which was moved to the summer to accomodate the World Cup, stripped from China due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then moved again to accomodate Qatar this cycle has been elongated by a full year.

World Cup qualifiers have, of course, begun for every team on the Asian continent. Ten teams have already been eliminated and we are one third the way through Round 2 (featuring 36 teams in nine groups of four).

39 days separate us from Palestine travelling to Dhaka to take on Bangladesh. The team knows that the March window will make or break their hopes at qualifying for Round 3 for the first time in their history. If they can take six point in back-to-back matches againt the Bangladeshis on March 21st and March 26th they will, in all likelihood, be able to clinch qualification with a draw or win against Lebanon before playing Australia away on June 11th.

More Transfers!

The transfer news is coming in thick and fast that the article published here last week has already become outdated: