Australia to donate part of match fees to humanitarian efforts in Gaza

Australia team photo before the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifier match between Australia Socceroos and Bangladesh at AAMI Park in Melbourne on 16 November 2023. [Photo credit should read Chris Putnam/Future Publishing via Getty Images]

Australia will donate part of their match fees from a World Cup 2026 qualifier against Palestine in Kuwait City on Tuesday towards humanitarian efforts in Gaza, Reuters reports.

The Socceroos’ donation will be a five-figure sum and will be made through the Professional Footballers Australia Footballers’ Trust. The donation will be provided to Oxfam and will be matched by Football Australia.

The match between Palestine and Australia had been scheduled to be played in the occupied West Bank, but officials switched the venue to the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait after Israeli forces attacked Gaza on 7 October leading to an increase is Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, both at the hands of occupation forces and illegal settlers.

Australia, ranked 27th in the world and fourth in Asia, top their qualifying group following a 7-0 win over Bangladesh. World number 96 Palestine are third after drawing with Lebanon.

READ: Over 800,000 Palestinians still in Gaza City, northern areas despite Israeli ground attacks

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.