Palestine’s World Cup Postmortem

Assessing where things went wrong for Palestine and what must be done to ensure Palestine qualifies for the 2030 FIFA World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was Palestine’s seventh attempt at qualification for the showpiece event.

It will forever be remembered for how it ended- a phantom penalty call inexplicably held up by VAR. That said, there is much more to opine and analyze. It was a campaign of ups and downs and one that could prove to be the springboard for greater things in the future.

Even if Palestine had qualified for Round 4, they would have likely shown up in October as the least prepared side. Small details make a huge difference in qualifying and even though Palestine boasts a talented team it is deficient in almost every other area. If Palestine’s Football Association wants to compete at a higher level it needs to plan. It doesn’t even necessarily need boatloads of cash (see: Jordan, Uzbekistan) it just needs a plan for the grassroots especially in light of football being suspended for the last two years.

It is important to stay grounded and keep expectations realistic. Palestine are close to a breakthrough but the realistic expectations for this group- especially without home field advantage- was to get to Round 3 and advance to the knockouts of the Asian Cup. It would have been nice to see the team stretch the target a little bit but you cannot dismiss the history they have made.

If Palestine want to make a World Cup one day they have to address the reasons as to why they failed in the 2026 cycle:

1. A lack of friendlies

Makram Daboub assumed the post of national team manager in April 2021. He kept his job by beating Singapore, Yemen, and Comoros by a combined result of 12-1 in June 2021.

Palestine then played a pair of friendlies in Kyrgyz Republic in September of that year but missed opportunities to play friendlies in October and November. The Palestine Football Association also failed to organize any encounters in March 2022 or in June before the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in Mongolia.

After successfully sealing qualification, Palestine missed the September, October, and November windows.

That is a grand total of seven windows. Palestine naturally compares itself to its more illustrious neighbor to the east. In that time, Jordan manager Adnan Hamad got 13 friendlies to tinker with his team and provide a base that his successors would use to breakthrough at the 2023 Asian Cup and qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

A lack of friendly matches meant that Palestine rebuilt their squad on the fly. The qualifying cycle started with the likes of Saleh Chihadeh, Mahmoud Wadi, Mohammed Yamin, and Camilo Saldaña playing key roles for the team.

It ended with the quartet not even being deemed worthy of selection.

Make no mistake, Palestine has the players but it does not have a cohesive team because there has been little time to fit the pieces together.

The Palestine Football Association MUST schedule friendlies for September, October, and November.

2. No league action

Palestine found a stop gap solution when football stopped on October 7th, 2023. Libya was the first to open its doors and dozens of Palestinian players filled up its first and second divisions. Qatar followed suit soon thereafter. That said

Now? The Palestinian exemption is being removed.

While returning a functioning league to Gaza is impossible- it can be done in the West Bank. The challenge is moving players from city to city what if the format was changed?

The 2023-24 League season had 12 teams- two from Jerusalem, two from Bethlehem, five from Hebron, one each from Ramallah, Tulkarem, and Nablus.

Why not centralize the competition and play the 22 games over three months? The first month can be hosted in Al-Ram, the second month in Hebron or Dura, and the final month in Nablus?

In that manner the Palestine Football Associaton would only have to deal with travel logistics on six days. They could hold the Palestine Cup in the space of two weeks inviting all the clubs to stay in Ramallah for games to be held in Al-Bireh or Al-Ram.

There is no shortage of players looking to play either. The third division of Israeli football (full of Palestinian players) is currently suspended due to a betting scandal.

3. No youth development

If you really want to get a state of Palestinian football look at the country’s performance in youth tournaments. It is atrocious. They have never qualified for the finals of the U17 or U19 Asian Cups. Their lone success came when they qualified for the 2018 U23 showpiece after hosting the qualification stage.

As a result, there is not steady pipeline of young players that come through the system to replace the veterans. This is why the senior team has no replacement for Rami Hamadi and why the only domestically produced CB in the pool is Mohammed Saleh.

When injury and suspension hit there was a drop off that was obvious for all to see. I

4. Coaching Chaos

Who is the better manager? Makram Daboub or Ehab Abu Jazar? In reality it is perhaps a fusion of the two. The team benefited greatly from Abu Jazar’s injection of fresh blood and the inclusion of Wajdi Nabhan, Ahmed Taha, Agustin Manzur, Hamza Hussein, Adam Kaied, Assad Al-Hamlawi, Badr Moussa and Hamed Hemdan bodes well for the future as all will be well under the age of 30 for the Arab and Asian Cup as well as the next World Cup qualification campaign.

That said, there is a sense that Makram Daboub was the better tactician. Controversy aside, Palestine were eliminated by an Oman side playing with ten men. When Daboub faced a ten man UAE- his team absolutely controlled every element of play.

Where Daboub failed was his loyalty to a very narrow pool of players. After all Daboub might have been the top boss since 2021 but he had been Palestine for more than a decade before that. As a result he had a strange fixation on certain players whose best days were behind them. Jonathan Cantillana’s reintegration was a prime example of that.

When Daboub switched to a 4-4-2 formation before the Asian Cup he had one glaring problem. A lack of speedy wingers that could make the team more unpredictable- especially in transition. Instead of calling up new players to fit his system he tried shoehorning the likes of Mahmoud Abu Warda, Islam Batran, and Tamer Seyam out wide.

Even more bizarre was the fact that he took four goalkeepers and three left backs to the Asian Cup.

Ehab Abu Jazar is also not without his faults. When the dust on the Oman match settles there will need to be some serious questions asked as to his selections and substitutions.

Moustafa Zeidan and Hamza Hussein were both left off the match day roster. A calming midfield presence with Ataa Jaber out injured was sorely needed in the dying embers of the match.

Instead of the energy of Assad Al-Hamlawi and Mohamad Hebous, Abu Jazar trotted out Badr Moussa and seemed to be readying Mahmoud Abu Warda in the game’s dying embers.

Tactical questions must be asked as well- how is it that Palestine were out possessed in the game’s final 15 minutes in spite of a numerical advantage.

This is not to say that the manager should be changed. Given the (alleged) limited resources it would be better to spend money on reviving the league and investing in the grassroots than a big name manager.

For all his faults, Abu Jazar did collect seven points from four games- extrapolated over ten matches that would have been good enough to qualify directly. Abu Jazar has earned the right to stay on. In normal circumstances he would have taken his lumps in friendlies; the hope now is that he learns from his mistakes.

5. A weak and disorganized Football Association

The root of all problems in Palestinian football lies not with the players, clubs, or coaches but with the handsomely paid administrators. Palestine should have been playing home matches in Amman from the outset of qualification but chose not to because PFA President Jibril Rajoub was concerned about anti-Mahmoud Abbas chants sung by Al-Wehdat supporters in the immediate aftermath of October 7th.

Palestine survived the second round by the skin of their teeth but playing in Amman might have given the team more of a boost. Keep in mind that the Jordanian capital is a house of horrors for the Socceroos (who narrowly beat Palestine 1-0 in Kuwait City).

In Palestine’s second match in Kuwait City- Bangladeshi supporters far outnumbered Palestinians. When the PFA shifted to Doha for the Lebanon game the crowd was bipartisan at best. The location went against the wishes of Makram Daboub who wanted to train at elevation in Abha, Saudi Arabia and then host The Cedars there.

Palestine also hosted Kuwait there in Round Three and Kuwaiti fans were far more boisterous in the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.

Perhaps the biggest mistake Palestine made was choosing to host Jordan in Kuala Lumpur. This was ostensibly done to reduce travel but Kuala Lumpur and Seoul are separated by a seven hour plane journey. Moreover, the facilities Palestine were given were atrocious.

The stadium they trained at had no shower so players were left to hose themselves off in buckets outside. The pitch was so bumpy that it caused two injuries on the eve of the game ruling out the team’s vice captains Tamer Seyam and Rami Hamadi.

A healthy Hamadi might have resulted in Palestine collecting a point against Jordan or Iraq on the second or third match days. If Palestine really wanted to reduce travel the PFA should have been on the phone to their Korean counterparts about a venue they could use as a home ground. That would have given the team a chance to cut down on travel significantly while also not endangering the health of their players.

The pitch in Kuala Lumpur favoured Jordan’s counter attacking approach while hampering Palestine’s possession based play. Given the injuries suffered in the Malaysian captial that should be considered a big reason why Palestine was eliminated in Round 3.

The chaos around the team continued even in the later stages of the campaign. Palestine traveled to Jordan after defeating Kuwait in Kuwait City at 6:00 AM- less than eight hours after the final whistle sounded at the Jaber Al-Ahmed International Stadium. This meant that the entire squad missed a night’s rest in spite of playing in a city in the same timezone and two hours away by plane.

So where does the team go from here?

The World Cup qualification campaign is over in spite of the appeal filed by the Palestine Football Association protesting the referee’s decision to erroneously award a penalty to Oman in the final seconds of Palestine’s last qualifier.

Yes, there is precedent and yes there is a slight chance but this is the PFA we are talking about. There is absolutely no evidence that they can work the system in their favor.

That said, Palestine has a good team and one that got younger as the campaign went on. When World Cup qualification starts again in October 2027, eleven of the 14 players that featured against Oman will still be under thirty years of age. This bodes well for Palestine in their next two competitions- the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

Palestine are improving and improving at a pace that is quicker than that of their more illustrious neighbors, Jordan.

Al-Nashama have qualified for the World Cup after 11 attempts dating back to 1986. The first time they got to the decisive group stage round was in 2014 (attempt number 8). Palestine did it in seven attempts.

In Asian Cup qualification, Jordan qualified for their first finals in 2004 after six qualification attempts. Palestine qualified for their first Asian Cup in 2015 on their fifth attempt.

Yes, Jordan famously made it out of the group stage of the 2004 tournament but keep in mind they had failed to enter three qualification editions (1976, 1980, and 1992) meaning it was actually their ninth go-around. Palestine got out of the group stage at the eighth attempt at the 2023 edition.

Those recent breakthroughs should give everyone involved in Palestinian football hope. There are serious matters that need to be addressed- as outline above- but progress can be made in the next four year cycle.

The question is whether or not the Palestine Football Association wants this to be the start of something as opposed to just the end of their 7th World Cup qualification campaign.