JERUSALEM, Saturday, August 03, 2019 (WAFA) – Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, said today that this year’s Palestinian national football league is at stake as a result of the severe financial crisis affecting the Palestinian Authority.

“I briefed President Mahmoud Abbas on the situation. Unless 50% of what was provided to the football clubs last year is provided this year, , there will be no league,” Rajoub said during a meeting of the PFA in the town of Al-Ram, northeast of Jerusalem.

He said the President, nonetheless, expressed his keenness to provide the minimum funding possible for this year’s league.

“We will not accept the collapse of the sports system, but the situation requires integrated efforts. We do not want the clubs to be victims of the financial crisis,” he said.

For seven months now, the Palestinian Authority has been dealing with an unprecedented crisis after Israel passed a law allowing it to deduct from the Palestinian money the equivalent of the amount the PA pays families of Palestinian prisoners and those killed or wounded by Israelis.

As a result, the PA said it will not accept the tax money, which amounts to around $200 million every month and covers two-thirds of the Palestinian budget, if incomplete.

M.N