Palestine participates in the Beach Games in China without a coach and half a team

The Palestinian national beach soccer team has arrived in Sanya, China, to participate in the 2026 Asian Beach Games, but this time their arrival is unlike any previous appearance.

The team’s roster is incomplete. The coaching staff is absent. The international stadium is open to a team exhausted by years of inactivity.

Their progress has been halted by war, reduced to mere survival rather than competition.

Trapped in Gaza

The team enters the tournament with only 11 players. This includes five players from the Gaza Strip currently in Cairo, and six players from the West Bank, who are participating for the first time simply to fill the roster.

This lineup seems more like an attempt to fill space than to build a complete team. In reality, it is all that remains of a team that was once close to the top of the sport.

The most heartbreaking aspect is the absences: the entire coaching staff is not traveling, and key players are trapped by the war in Gaza. They will be absent from the fields, along with the very essence of the game itself.

The long years of inactivity, stretching back to the outbreak of war, have left Palestinian beach soccer with nothing but a dormant memory – a sport barely surviving.

Sports eroded by war

Beach soccer in Palestine didn’t suddenly collapse; rather, it gradually eroded over nearly three years of inactivity.

Training camps ceased, travel opportunities vanished, and international participation dwindled to almost nothing – a stark reflection of the direct impact of war on sports at all levels.

This sport wasn’t alone in its isolation; the beach volleyball team was also unable to travel to the same tournament, completing the picture of Palestinian absence from the competitions. It was as if participation this time wasn’t measured by the number of teams present, but by the number that couldn’t make it.

Despite all this, participation carries a dimension that transcends the result and the tournament itself. It’s an attempt to keep Palestine’s name present on the international stage, even if the presence is incomplete and burdened by circumstances. It’s a determination not to completely sever ties with the world.

The Palestinian national team’s memories harken back to a different time. When he was competing fiercely in Arab and Asian championships, coming close more than once to the World Cup dream, and even reaching the podium to win bronze at the 2012 Asian Beach Games in China.

That win is a distant image that seems today to belong to another life, before war redrew the boundaries of the game, the field, and the opportunity.

By Alaa Shamali

Source link