FIFA President Gianni Infantino is seriously hoping that the opening match of a new Under-15 football competition should be Israel vs. Palestine. The competition was announced last December, and is intended to take place in September 2026 in the United States, although it still has no exact dates, location (Miami has been rumoured), or even name, beyond being described as "festival-style tournaments".
These "football festivals" for boys under 15 years old (a second edition in 2027 would have girls under 15) would, unlike most other FIFA competitions, be open to all 211 FIFA members, including Russia, which has been banned since the war in Ukraine started in January 2022. They would be shorter matches, played on smaller pitches, with seven to nine players on each side.
According to sources from The Athletic, FIFA wants that the opening match of the competition later this summer should be Israel vs. Palestine, as a sign of union between the countries.
During FIFA's annual congress on April 30, Infantino tried, and failed, to have the presidents of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, and the Israeli Football Association, Basim Sheikh Suliman, to shake hands on stage, but both stood several feet away. Despite Infantino's attempts to build bridges between the two countries, his closeness with Donald Trump, who has funded and aided in Israel's cruel genocide against Palestine, doesn't fool anybody.