The global party has started. Right now, millions of people across North America, Europe, and Asia are settling into comfortable couches, cold drinks in hand, waiting for the opening whistles of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The stadiums in Mexico, Canada, and the United States are gleaming under massive floodlights. But if you look at the tournament from a tent in the Gaza Strip, that global celebration doesn't just feel far away. It feels like a completely different reality.
For football fans in Gaza, the beautiful game used to be an escape. It was the one thing that could cut through the tension of a decades-long blockade. Four years ago, during the Qatar World Cup, the streets of Gaza City were alive. Cafes were packed to the brim. People draped themselves in the flags of Brazil, Morocco, and Argentina. Arguments over Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo echoed through neighborhoods.
Today, that vibrant sports culture is buried under rubble. As the world turns its attention to the pitch, Palestinians in Gaza are trying to survive a war that has claimed nearly 73,000 lives. The contrast between the billionaire spectacle of a modern World Cup and the daily fight for survival in a destroyed enclave has never been more staggering.
The Destruction of Gaza Football Infrastructure
You can't have a football culture when you don't have pitches. Across the Gaza Strip, years of heavy bombardment have obliterated the physical foundation of the sport. Stadiums that once hosted local league matches and thousands of roaring fans are completely gone or rendered useless.
The famous Palestine Stadium in Gaza City is a shell of its former self. What remains of the field is scarred and uneven, yet it is one of the very few spaces where athletes can still gather. Other facilities have been converted into makeshift camps, crowded with tents holding thousands of families who have been displaced over and over again.
According to data from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), the vast majority of sports infrastructure in the enclave has been heavily damaged or totally destroyed. This isn't just about losing buildings. It's about losing the places where young people built a sense of community, purpose, and normalcy.
Playing on Crutches in a Ruined World
Despite everything, some athletes refuse to let go of the ball. At what's left of the Palestine Stadium, members of Gaza Al-Irada (The Will of Gaza) still gather to train. This is a football club specifically for amputees, founded back in 2018 to give people who lost limbs a way back into sports. Tragically, their roster of potential players has grown exponentially. The current conflict has left thousands of survivors with amputations, including hundreds of promising young athletes.
Consider the reality for Ali Tafesh, a 24-year-old player with Gaza Al-Irada. In 2022, Ali was just another fan, watching matches with his friends in a local cafe, shouting at the screen. A few months into the current war, an airstrike hit his family home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing his mother and severely injuring him. His leg had to be amputated.
Now, Ali chases a football while balancing on crutches. The logistics alone are brutal. Because the transportation system in Gaza is completely broken, Ali frequently walks for over two hours on his crutches just to reach the training field.
The team plays with whatever they can find. There's a severe shortage of proper crutches, sports shoes, and basic athletic safety gear. They are essentially rebuilding a sport from scratch, using whatever scraps are left behind.
No Power, No Screens, No Connection
The biggest hurdle to enjoying the 2026 World Cup in Gaza isn't a lack of interest. It's a total lack of basic utility infrastructure. In previous years, even during periods of strict blockade, local businesses would set up massive projectors, generators, and sound systems so communities could watch matches together.
That option is off the table now. The enclave is suffering from catastrophic power cuts. Following intense disruptions and political standoffs over energy supply, the main electricity grids are down. People can't turn on a television because they don't have electricity. They can't set up public viewings because gathering in large groups under constant threat of bombardment is incredibly dangerous.
Even trying to keep up with scores on a mobile phone is a monumental chore. The communications infrastructure has been battered, making internet access rare, slow, and expensive. When you have to spend your morning searching for clean water or queuing for scarce food aid, tracking a match in Vancouver or Mexico City naturally takes a backseat.
Sports Journalists Locked Out of the Press Box
The isolation isn't limited to the fans and players. Gaza’s sports journalists, who should be on the ground in North America covering this historical 48-team tournament, are completely trapped.
During the 2022 tournament in Qatar, dozens of journalists from both Gaza and the West Bank easily registered through official FIFA platforms, secured their visas, and traveled to cover the event. They were part of the international press corps, building careers and sharing Palestinian perspectives on global sports.
That pathway has vanished. Take the case of Ihab, a seasoned sports reporter originally from the Jabalia camp. He has been displaced with his family of nine more than 13 times since the war began. He currently lives in a flimsy plastic tent. When his home in Jabalia was destroyed, he lost his most prized possessions: memorabilia from Qatar 2022, including a piece of the actual turf from Lusail Stadium where Argentina won the final, and his official tournament media kits.
Even though some journalists hold valid international credentials, the total closure of border crossings makes travel impossible. According to Ashraf Matar, head of the sports journalists’ syndicate, an entire generation of media professionals has seen their careers put on a forced, indefinite pause.
What the Sports World Ignores
There's a growing frustration among athletes and fans in Gaza regarding the silence of international sports bodies. While FIFA has previously taken quick, decisive action to suspend nations or support political causes during global conflicts, the response to the destruction of Palestinian sports infrastructure has been slow and largely ineffective.
The coach of Gaza Al-Irada, Hatem al-Mughrebi, views this lack of action as a painful message from the international sporting community. The sentiment on the ground is clear: football fans and players in Gaza don't want charity or pity. They want acknowledgment. They want the international community to recognize that Palestinian athletes have a right to exist, train, and compete on the global stage.
As the tournament moves forward, the contrast will remain sharp. The world will watch multi-millionaire athletes play in climate-controlled stadiums, while young men on crutches in Gaza City kick a worn-out ball across a concrete field, occasionally looking up at the sky to make sure it's safe.
If you want to support what's left of the athletic community in Gaza, look toward independent athletic initiatives and NGOs that focus on supplying medical equipment, prosthetic limbs, and basic sports gear to disabled youth. While the official football governing bodies turn a blind eye, grassroots support remains the only real way to keep the game alive in the world's most difficult conditions.
