Palestinian club football to restart in September after Gaza war suspension
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- Jibril Rajoub announced at a Ramallah news conference that Palestinian sports activities and the football league will resume September 4, ending a suspension that began October 7, 2023.
- The Palestinian Football Association named the return tournament the "Thousand Martyrs' Cup," honoring 1,014 Palestinian athletes killed during the war, according to the association's data.
- More than 200 clubs will compete in the tournament — 146 from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 44 from Gaza, and 36 from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon — with matches kicking off simultaneously across all three locations.
- Rajoub called on FIFA and other federations to protect Palestinian players' rights to play "in freedom and dignity," citing tough financial circumstances faced by the association and its clubs.
- The PFA separately urged FIFA to impose sanctions on Israeli clubs operating in occupied West Bank settlements and to suspend Israel's FIFA membership over its conduct in Gaza, while questioning whether FIFA "still has the courage to apply its regulations to everyone equally."
- The PFA also criticized FIFA President Gianni Infantino's now-withdrawn plan to open tournaments to private investors, saying "many today are questioning FIFA's commercial direction."
Why it matters: The September 4 restart is the PFA's most concrete political act since the war began — using 200+ clubs across three territories as a platform to publicly pressure FIFA on Israeli sanctions while memorializing over 1,000 dead athletes. The simultaneous kickoff across the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanese refugee camps turns the tournament into a coordinated statement of Palestinian national continuity under wartime conditions.
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