Sport
Palestine's footballers reach the Asian Cup without a home ground
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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Palestine will open the 2027 Asian Cup against the host nation in Riyadh on 7 January, Inside World Football reported after the draw, a curtain-raiser in front of a full King Fahd Sports City crowd — and, like every competitive match the team has played since 2019, an away game in all but name.
The draw, held at Salwa Palace in Diriyah, placed Palestine in Group A with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on 9 May. Reuters copy carried by Devdiscourse noted the ceremony had originally been set for 11 April in Riyadh and was pushed back because of the regional conflict, so that every federation could attend.
Qualification itself came the hard way. The Asian Football Confederation says Palestine booked its place at the Saudi Arabia 2027 finals by finishing second behind Australia in Group I of the joint World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying round, under head coach Ihab Abu Jazar.
ESPN reported in February 2025 that the last international played in the Palestinian territories was in October 2019, and that Palestine has since staged its home fixtures at neutral venues in Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia.
The home ground exists. The Faisal al-Husseini International Stadium sits in al-Ram, on the northern edge of Jerusalem.
According to the Palestinian Football Association, cited by Onmanorama, it hosted the team's first home match on Palestinian soil against Jordan on 26 October 2008, and Palestine has never lost a competitive fixture there — one of the few unbeaten home records in world football.
The same account notes Asian Cup qualifiers played in Jenin and Hebron in 2017.
In August 2024, Doha News reported that FIFA turned down the PFA's proposal to play its World Cup qualifiers at that ground, with the federation's home matches going to Kuwait and Qatar instead.
The PFA's statement at the time thanked Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Qatar for offering to host, apologised to supporters for not playing at home, and said: "We are committed to continue advocating for our right to play in Jerusalem." Al Jazeera reported in September 2024 that FIFA had given conditional approval for the PFA to host games at al-Husseini, but that the logistics were not simple.
The neutral-venue arrangement has produced its own disputes.
ESPN reported that after the proposal to play Palestine's March 2025 match against Iraq in the Palestinian territories was refused, FIFA proposed Amman, and the Iraqi Football Association wrote to FIFA asking for the game to be moved elsewhere on the grounds that Amman breached FIFA's own neutrality rules.
The match went ahead at Amman International Stadium, where Press TV reported Palestine came from behind to beat Iraq 2-1, with an equaliser from Wissam Abou Ali and a winner from Ameed Mahajneh deep into stoppage time.
That campaign ended one point short. Yahoo Sports reported in November 2025 that Palestine was eliminated in the third round of Asian qualifying, finishing fifth in a Group B that included South Korea, Jordan, Iraq, Oman and Kuwait, and missing fourth place — and a route into the fourth round — by a single point.
Along the way the Saudi outlet Akhbaar24 reported a 2-0 win over Kuwait in June 2025, Tamer Seyam and Abou Ali scoring.
Then came the Arab Cup. WAFA reported that Palestine reached the quarter-finals for the first time, going through after a goalless draw with Syria and taking first place in the group on goals scored, with Tunisia and Qatar eliminated.
Abu Jazar, quoted by the agency, said the qualification brought joy "to our Palestinian people, something we haven't felt in a long time", and dedicated it to Palestinians in Gaza's tents and to families in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Abu Jazar was born in Rafah in 1980 and played there for Shabab Rafah before coaching in the West Bank, according to his public record; Muslim Network TV reported he took the senior job on 3 December 2024, succeeding Makram Daboub.
Preparation for January is being done abroad too. The Ramallah-based outlet Raya reported in May that the squad would travel to a friendly tournament in Kyrgyzstan during the June window, facing Kenya on 6 June and the hosts on 9 June at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium, both matches at 17:30 Jerusalem time.
Sofascore's record shows the Kyrgyzstan match finished goalless, the team's most recent outing. FIFA's ranking had Palestine 95th in April 2026.
The war's cost to the game is counted in the same records. The PFA said in January 2025 that more than 380 Palestinian footballers had been killed since the war began, Onmanorama reported. Whether the federation has published an updated toll since is not clear from its public statements.
Nor is there a published, route-by-route account of how players inside Gaza reach national-team camps abroad, or how many of the squad now travel from the West Bank and under what permits. That gap sits at the centre of the story and has not been filled by the federation or by FIFA.
What is fixed is the date. On 7 January, in Riyadh, Palestine walks out first at a tournament its federation still says it wants to host part of at al-Ram.
