Palestine national football team forced to begin FIFA World Cup quest away from home

Palestine’s national football team begin the challenge for a place in the next phase of Asia’s 2026 FIFA World Cup preliminaries in Sharjah on Thursday due to Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters has reported. Palestine will play the first game against Lebanon in the emirate on Thursday.

The match had originally been scheduled to be played in Beirut before Palestine was set to host Australia the following week. However, officials have been forced to find suitable new venues. Lebanon and Palestine will thus meet at the Khalid Bin Mohammed Stadium in the UAE before the Palestinian team, which usually plays home games at Al-Ram’s Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in the occupied West Bank, take on Australia in Kuwait on 21 November.

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This week’s matches mark the start of the second phase of the continent’s qualifiers for the expanded 48-team 2026 FIFA World Cup. Asia will have eight guaranteed places plus a possible ninth available through an intercontinental playoff. The top two finishers in each of the nine groups advance to the third phase, which is scheduled to kick off next September.

Iran kick off their quest for a seventh World Cup appearance against Hong Kong in Group E, where Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also feature. Saudi Arabia’s challenge begins in Group G against Pakistan, which has qualified for the second phase of Asia’s preliminaries for the first time, with Tajikistan taking on Jordan.

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