SOCCER
Palestinian Olympic football team coach Al-Masri killed by Israeli air strike in Gaza
The former player joins a growing list of sportsmen and women to have been killed in the attack on the Gaza strip.
The Palestinian Football Association announced the killing of the coach of their Olympic team, Hani al-Masdar, on Sunday at the hands of an Israeli airstrike.
He had previously played as a midfielder for Al-Maghazi and Gaza Sports before retiring in 2018. He was 42-years old.
“The President of the Palestinian Football Association, the family of the Palestinian Football Association, and the entire Palestinian sports family, extend their sincere feelings of sadness and pain at the martyrdom of former Palestinian football star, the general coach of the Olympic national team, Hani Al-Masdar (Abu al-Abed),” the statement read.
“88 athletes in team and individual sports, including 67 football players have been killed. Additionally, 24 officials from managerial and technical staff lost their lives due to Israel’s strikes on Gaza,” it went on to state.
How the Israeli war on Gaza has turned football upside down
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October, the whole of Palestinian life in Gaza has been turned upside-down. More than 22,000 people have been killed so far with no end in sight as the Israeli army continues its march southwards. According to human rights group Human Rights Watch 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced as a result of the invasion.
There have been no moves to expel Israeli teams from sporting competitions despite the seeming precedent set by Russia. The football associations of Europe were quick to expel Russian teams from international and continental competitions after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
Social media posts that claim to support Palestinians have also faced significant consequences. Dutch winger Anwar El Ghazi is taking legal action against his former club Mainz after his contract was terminated. He refused to apologise for posting the phrase “from the river to the sea” commonly used to voice support for Palestinians.
Mainz said El Ghazi’s post “took a position on the conflict in the Middle East in a manner that wasn’t tolerable for the club”.
In terms of matches, the Palestinian men’s national team plays a friendly against Saudi Arabia on 9 January before heading to Iran for the first game of the Asian Cup on 14 January.