Palestinian Soccer Body Appeals FIFA Israel Ruling

Shalabi said visa problems also prevented some of the PFA's representatives from entering Canada for the FIFA Congress.

She said she received an electronic travel authorisation immediately because she applied on a foreign passport, but other members of the delegation, including the PFA president, general secretary and legal counsel Gonzalo Boye, initially did not receive visas.

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She said the visas were issued only after pressure "on the political level, on the social level, on the media level," as well as action from community members and activists, adding that the PFA president had not received a visa in time to travel with the rest of the delegation but was expected to arrive later.

She said Boye, however, had still not received a visa and would not attend.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told Reuters it would look into the matter.

Shalabi said the visa problems were not limited to Palestine and that she understood Iran's football association, whose representatives were not present at the AFC Congress, had also faced issues.

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"As you can see, it's a huge event that's going to happen. We have a World Cup, and it's good for Canada to have everyone from everywhere able to come and participate in this," Shalabi said.

She added the situation for Palestinian football remained dire, particularly in Gaza, where she said every football structure was either unusable or destroyed.

"We lost so many hundreds of footballers; we lost most of them children," she said. "So football now in Gaza, there is no football at all."

"It's very dangerous for our teams to compete," she said, adding that professional leagues were suspended and that the PFA was trying to keep football alive through grassroots and youth competitions.

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