{"id":850507,"date":"2026-08-10T17:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850507\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:56:18","slug":"palestinian-club-football-to-restart-in-september-after-gaza-war-suspension-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850507\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian club football to restart in September after Gaza war suspension | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Palestinian sports leagues, including professional football, were halted due to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 10 Aug 202610 Aug 2026<\/p>\n<p>The Palestinian Football Association has announced that it will resume activity in September after a nearly three-year pause due to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe announce the resumption of sports activities and the football association\u2019s league beginning September 4,\u201d association President Jibril Rajoub said at a Ramallah news conference on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinian sports leagues, including professional football, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/6\/14\/losing-three-years-set-us-back-20-palestinian-footballs-future-in-peril\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">came to a halt<\/a> after the war began on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The association has named the first tournament back the \u201cThousand Martyrs\u2019 Cup\u201d, to honour the 1,014 Palestinian athletes killed by Israel during the war, according to the association\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<p>More than 200 clubs will compete in the tournament, including 146 from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 44 from Gaza, and 36 from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament will kick off simultaneously in the three locations.<\/p>\n<p>Rajoub said the war \u201ccreated difficult conditions for all Palestinians that led to the suspension of our competitions and activities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we have not lost our Palestinian national will, nor have we lost our belief that sport will remain a symbol of hope and life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rajoub noted that the association and Palestinian clubs faced tough financial circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>During the news conference, he called on FIFA and other federations to stand by Palestinian sports and to protect the rights of players, clubs and children to enjoy sports in \u201cfreedom and dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The association previously issued a statement regarding FIFA President Gianni Infantino\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/8\/10\/uefa-afc-concacaf-hit-out-at-infantino-over-world-cup-privatisation-plan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">now-withdrawn plan<\/a> to open tournaments to private investors, saying \u201cmany today are questioning FIFA\u2019s commercial direction\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut for Palestine, the issue is more fundamental \u2026 Our question is whether FIFA still has the courage to apply its regulations to everyone equally \u2026 without succumbing to political pressures,\u201d Rajoub said.<\/p>\n<p>The association has called on FIFA to impose sanctions on Israeli clubs that operate in occupied West Bank settlements and to suspend Israel\u2019s FIFA membership over the country\u2019s conduct in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not asking for privileges; we are demanding legitimate rights guaranteed by international sporting laws and charters,\u201d Rajoub said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Palestinian sports leagues, including professional football, were halted due to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Palestinians. Published On 10&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,6898,6897,36089,12241,44,38845,6899,588,85],"class_list":["post-850507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-palestine","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}