Gaza and San Sebastian twinned by football and the Donosti Cup
The President of Al Helal Academy, whose B14 team won the Gaza Cup, visits San Sebastian before their participation in the Donosti Cup 2022 as guest team.
This week we have received the visit of Ayed Abu-Ramadan, President of the Al Helal Academy from Gaza, Palestine. His B14 team was proclaimed 1 month ago champion of the Gaza Cup, a tournament in which 16 Palestinian teams participated and whose prize for the winning team was to participate in the Donosti Cup 2022 as a guest team.
Ayed explained to us how the situation is at the moment in Gaza: "politically we are somewhat calmer but the economy is getting worse and worse and the hardest thing is that young people have no future". In his Academy the children do not pay anything because they come from very poor families and cannot afford to do so. "We want the kids to have some illusion in their lives and they are passionate about soccer. In addition, we care a lot about training and education and thanks to soccer we get them to pay more attention to their studies."
Participating in the Donosti Cup will be like living a dream for all of them. "They have never left the Gaza Strip because they cannot. For them everything is going to be new: crossing the Strip, taking a plane, visiting another city, meeting boys and girls of other nationalities.... It's going to be amazing.
In January, with the help of the Donosti Cup, they will start all the administrative procedures. "The Embassy asks for a lot of documents from each family and we need several months to prepare it".The idea is to leave the Strip through Egypt to avoid the controls in the West Bank. If all goes well, they will take the flight from Cairo to Bilbao after a stopover in Istanbul. Ayed preferred this option to arriving in Madrid first, visiting the Santiago Bernabeu, and then traveling by road to San Sebastian: "Madrid is a very big city and I'm afraid that some players will get lost. I have seen that San Sebastian is smaller, and very beautiful, by the way, and here they will be calmer".
After yesterday's visit, the director of the Donosti Cup, Iñigo Olaizola, will accompany him to the Reale Arena, the stadium where Real Sociedad plays, a club he has already fallen in love with.
From the Donosti Cup we want to thank Ayed for his visit, congratulate him for the work he does with young people in Gaza, and tell him that we are waiting for them with open arms to celebrate with them the 30th anniversary of our tournament.
See you soon!
