Palestine came closer than ever for qualifying for World Cup 2026, as part of the as part of the AFC World Cup qualifiers. A controversial penalty in the last minute truncated their path for the play-offs, but it's still the best result ever for a team that hoped to bring a tiny ray of hope in the war devastated country. Now, the team is already thinking on World Cup 2030, and they want to be prepared. That's why they've announced that they've moved the team to Chile, the non-Arab country with a larger Palestinian population, estimated in 500,000 people in a country with 20 million.
Palestine national football team manager, Ehab Abu Jazar, said to EFE that they want to find new talent among the Palestinian population in Chile, as well as founding a new formative school.
Palestine, which has recently been recognised as a state by three of the world's biggest economies (France, Canada, and United Kingdom), is recognised as a nation by FIFA since 1998. And their results have improved, reaching round of 16 at the Asian Cup for the first time in 2023. However, they haven't been able to play in their own country as locals since 2019. And since the mass genocide by Israel started in 2023, sports have basically been erased from the country. 60,000 people have died in Palestine, including around 700 sportspeople.
"Sports practically don't exist in Palestine now. It's not just that there are no tournaments, it's that there are no sporting activities", said Abu Jazar, born in Gaza, whose family is now living in a refugee camp as his house was destroyed.
"With the national teams, we are trying to build our resilience and participate in all competitions for two reasons: first, to make the name and flag of Palestine present and to continue improving. We believe we can achieve important things, and as long as there are Palestinians, we will continue" he said.