The countdown for the arrival of the much-anticipated Palestinian National Football team on South African soil to participate in the ‘Football 4 Humanity’ initiative, has begun.
In just under two weeks, the Palestinians – fresh from their historic achievement in the Asia Cup where they qualified for the Round of 16 for the first time in their history – will touch down in Cape Town on 8 February to play two exhibition matches at the Home of Soccer, the Athlone Stadium.
This first match will see the Palestinians coming up against the best talent on offer in the Western Cape on 11 February, the day former President Nelson Mandela was released from the Victor Verster prison.
Mandela’s words at International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People in Pretoria on 4 December 1997 were: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
The first match will therefore be a celebration of this historic event in 1990.This spectacle will be followed by the visitors from Gaza pitting themselves against a South African Invitational XI a week later on 18 February for honours in the Freedom Cup.
The ‘Football for Humanity’ campaign is under the auspices of Safa Cape Town, and has been fully endorsed by the country’s footballing Mother Body, the South African Football Association (Safa).
Safa CT president Bennett Bailey, and vice president of Safa – who is spearheading this historic occasion, pointed out that apart from keeping Mandela’s legacy alive, it is about the significance and the relationship between South Africa and Palestine.
“Our Freedom and their freedom is connected as per the statement of Madiba,” explains Bailey
“But to host the Palestine national team successfully we need monetary assistance. We need to cater for their accommodation, security and transport.
“Then we also need to sort out the apparel for the volunteers – those are the big items. But if there is anything else that we as Capetonians and the broader South African public can contribute toward this initiative, it will be gladly welcomed. Let us show our brothers and sisters in Palestine that we don’t just talk the talk but also walk the talk,” Bailey concluded.
