Will Palestinian beach soccer team make it to Vietnam?
The Palestinian Football Association is working with FIFA to promote beach soccer in Gaza by organizing championship tournaments in the Gaza Strip, although the athletes hold out little hope of competing abroad.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian national beach soccer team is hard at work training for the Asian Beach Games next month in Vietnam. But officials worry travel restrictions will keep players from attending and are calling for international help.
Since 2014, the team has been unable to take part in any competition held abroad because of limits on passage through the Erez crossing to the north, overseen by Israel, and the Rafah crossing to the south, supervised by Egypt.
With FIFA's support, the Palestinian Football Association organized the first Beach Soccer League Championship between Gaza's Premier League clubs. Officials hope the tournament, held in July, will give the sport a boost in the Strip.
A high-level FIFA delegation visited Gaza on July 1 and inspected the sports facilities destroyed by the latest war on Gaza, as well as the headquarters of the Palestinian Football Association in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, which was also damaged. FIFA also opened a soccer field in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
