CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said he would wave a Palestinian flag on the pitch and dedicate it to both Egyptians and Palestinians after his team’s World Cup win over Australia.
“My heart and soul are with them,” he said in an emotional post-game interview.
Egypt achieved their first win in the qualifying round. world cup They held Australia to a 1-1 draw in Friday’s round of 32 before winning 4-2 on penalties.
It was Egypt’s fourth World Cup victory.
A video of Hassan on social media shows him walking around the pitch holding a flag as people chant “Free, Free Palestine!” This video went viral.
“That was the most important moment,” Yahia Kalash, former president of the Egyptian Union of Journalists, said of Hassan’s move. “It was an extraordinary moment, a memorable scene.”
The fate of more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, largely displaced and living in ruins after the war that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, remains uncertain. A total of 73,066 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The war has sparked pro-Palestinian protests around the world, with some athletes expressing solidarity.
Earlier this year, Lamine Yamal waved a Palestinian flag during the Spanish league championship celebrations. The move sparked a backlash from Israel’s defense minister, who criticized Barcelona’s teenage star and said his actions “incite hatred.”
Hassan is not known to be religious or affiliated with any political group. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was a street soccer player who played in the slums and was admired by young people.
He said Friday that he would dedicate the game to the “good and noble” Egyptian and Palestinian people.
It was not immediately clear whether FIFA would take any action, and it did not respond to requests for comment. There have been previous attempts to restrict what could be seen as political speech on the pitch.
Some European teams will be banned from wearing armbands at the 2022 Qatar World Cup in support of the international anti-discrimination One Love campaign.
During Iran’s World Cup matches, some Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles displayed pre-revolutionary Iranian flags in an attempt to stop FIFA from banning the flag. Although they lost in court, the ban was upheld.
