Palestinian soccer league gears up for nailbiter final

Throughout the season, the Jerusalem club Hilal Alquds was at the top of charts of the Champions League, together with Al Zahiriyyah and Balata.

But then they played Jabel Mukaber, a much weaker team, and the match turned out to be quite different from the walk in the park they had expected.

Hilal Alquds’ ouster from the champions league left two teams to face-off each other in the championship match on Friday: The Al Zahiriyyah “Gazelles,” from a village near Hebron, and the Balata “Nobles,” from the eponymous refugee camp near Nablus, that is populated mainly by refugees from the Jaffa area and their descendants and is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

After Friday’s match, we’ll know which team will participate in the Asian Champions League later this year.