Up until 2015, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) and its national team had been an afterthought both on and off the pitch.
Palestine was officially recognised by FIFA in 1998, but after some promising early success, the team went into a tailspin.
Jibril Rajoub took over the PFA in 2008, and despite increased funding, success proved hard to come by.
Those in charge seemed genuinely disinterested and outright hostile to the footballing apparatus.
Then, on 30 May 2014, Palestine qualified for its first-ever Asian Cup, and a media frenzy ensued.
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