The Problem
There are 221 professional Israeli clubs, 90 (40%) are Palestinian clubs but more than 60% of those clubs are rooted to the bottom of the football pyramid. Only one has played consecutive seasons in the top tier. Individual players complain of institutionalized racism and having to be twice as good to go just as far. On the administrative side, Palestinians are not given managerial or front office positions upon retirement.
The Opportunity
We want to acquire a club in the second tier of Israeli football and rebrand them as Canaan Football Club in tandem with changing our brand image we want to change the club’s philosophy and employ an Athletic Bilbao sporting model- employing players only developed in the academy. In the transfer market Canaan FC will only pursue Palestinian players.
Why Rebrand?
This will mark a new beginning for the club one that aims to win the hearts of fans across the Palestinian diaspora. We want to differentiate ourselves from other clubs that are nominally Arab but use Hebrew prefixes in their name (Bnei Sakhnin, Macabbi Bnei Raina, Maccabi Ahi Nazareth, et al) as we firmly believe this would prevent the brand from resonating. We also want to drop any geographic indicators from the club’s name as it might not resonate with a Palestinian not from the Galilee region. We settled on the name Canaan Football Club because it has the same meaning and pronunciation in three languages and because it an alternate name for Palestine.
Is this Normalization?
In a word, no. The Canaan FC Project does not seek to normalize an abnormal situation and if anything seeks to shed light on the ongoing injustice Palestinians have faced- and continue to face- as the result of the ongoing Israeli occupation.
There are 1.9 million Palestinian citizens of Israel and in spite of having more rights than their brothers and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza they still face institutionalized discrimination and their communities are underfunded and under serviced.
The common refrain amongst many living on the other side of the Green Line is “the Arab world has forgotten about us”. Most are unaware that these 1.9 million people are the descendants of the brave 150,000 who found a way to stay in the face of a organized ethnic cleansing campaign in 1947-48. Unfortunately, the ethnic cleansing has not stopped and there is a concerted effort to remove Palestinians from their homes in Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa in spite of their status of Israeli citizens.
We believe that investments should be made to protect these communities and that Canaan Football Club can be the centerpiece of such a strategy in addition to being a valuable cultural platform for Palestinians in Nazareth and beyond.