If Egypt defeats defending champion Argentina on July 7, 2026, to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals, “The Pharaohs” will have done more than make history. Their coach will have the opportunity to continue promoting a pro-Palestinian agenda.
Following Egypt’s defeat of Australia on July 3, coach Hossam Hassan held the Palestinian flag in front of fans who chanted, “Free Palestine!” “My heart and soul are with them,” Hassan said afterward regarding the Palestinians. “May Allah grant them victory. May Allah have mercy on their martyrs.”
The hypocrisy is profound from both Egypt and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the agency governing international soccer.
Between 2013 and 2015, Egyptian authorities evicted about 3,200 families, destroyed hundreds of acres of farmland, and demolished 3,255 buildings.
Egypt built a fortified border wall to protect its citizens from Hassan’s “kind and honorable” Palestinian “martyrs,” whom most Arab governments view as a domestic threat and economic burden. Construction began in 2009 amidst opposition from Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah. Despite the wall, which extended underground to block tunnels, jihadists murdered 33 Egyptian soldiers in 2014 in two attacks in the northern Sinai Peninsula. One attack, just 13 miles from Rafah in Gaza, killed 30 soldiers.
Those attacks accelerated development of a more fortified wall and stronger countermeasures against tunnels, such as pumping water and toxic gas into them. Between 2013 and 2015, Egyptian authorities evicted about 3,200 families, destroyed hundreds of acres of farmland, and demolished 3,255 buildings.
“The Egyptian authorities provided residents with little or no warning of the evictions, no temporary housing, mostly inadequate compensation for their destroyed homes—none at all for their farmland—and no effective way to challenge their eviction, home demolition, or compensation,” Human Rights Watch stated in its report.
The steel and concrete wall now reaches 23 feet and extends the length of Egypt’s 7.5-mile border with Gaza. The barrier includes several lengths of barbed wire, electronic sensors and surveillance and a cleared buffer zone.
FIFA’s hypocrisy contradicts its own disciplinary code. Article 13 states that “using a sports event for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature” constitutes “offensive behavior” and violates “the principles of fair play.” Article 6 outlines punishments ranging from fines to suspensions to banishment but leaves enforcement to the discretion of the Federation’s judicial bodies.
In the past, the Federation punished blatant politicking. In 2013, Croatian defender Josip Simunic received one for 10 games and missed the 2014 World Cup after instigating a chant and using a salute associated with the pro-Nazi Ustaše regime during World War II. After that year’s tournament, Argentina’s soccer federation drew a fine because its players stood behind a banner proclaiming in Spanish that Britain’s Falkland Islands belonged to Argentina.
In 2016, the federations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales received fines for having players wear black armbands featuring poppies for Armistice Day. But when it comes to Palestine or Arab sensibilities, soccer’s international governing body exhibits far greater latitude.
“Whatever your view on the Middle East and the future of the Palestinian Territories, taking their flag onto a football pitch at the World Cup surely counts as a political statement.”
During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the international Federation allowed the display of Palestinian flags while prohibiting team captains from wearing rainbow armbands to support LGBTQ activism, since Qatar criminalizes homosexuality. Morocco’s team displayed the Palestinian flag numerous times, especially after defeating Spain to reach the quarterfinals. The British group Lawyers for Israel demanded sanctions but FIFA did nothing. The Moroccan players’ behavior reflected the games’ anti-Israeli atmosphere.
“Rules only make sense if they are consistently applied,” Deutsche Welle’s Mark Meadows wrote at the time. “Whatever your view on the Middle East and the future of the Palestinian Territories, taking their flag onto a football pitch at the World Cup surely counts as a political statement.
“It is obviously difficult for FIFA to stop this. But FIFA and Qatar are not responding to the Palestinian issue because they know they have backed themselves into a corner. If rainbow armbands are a political statement, then so is ‘free Palestine.’ But they don’t want to crack down on this because it will cause such a rumpus among Arabs.”
The Egyptian team now furthers the challenge. FIFA’s inaction suggests the football federation now endorses anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activism. Otherwise, there would be no tolerance for such a repeated and blatant violation of FIFA’s own rules. The Israel-Palestinian conflict has infiltrated, and ultimately eroded, many other international institutions to their own detriment. Rather than learn the lesson, FIFA endangers its broader reputation and opens the door to greater political polemics.
