After almost two years of the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, the Palestinian sports club, one of the historic Chilean football, has experienced an unprecedented boom in its sales of t -shirts, having quadrupled since 2023, with a patent domain of sales abroad.
The squad, which this year celebrates its 105th anniversary, has always been meant as more than a simple soccer club, with demonstrations in favor of the Palestinian cause, solidarity initiatives and a t -shirt design and ‘merchandising’ that does not focus solely on sports, but seeks to convey a much deeper message.
“Each garment and each official article is conceived as an extension of the identity and history of Palestine and as a bridge that connects our community in Chile and in the world,” explains Nicolás Abusada, commercial director of the club, which figure in more than 20,000 the elastic sold only in 2024.
The watermelon design shirt -having the fruit that became “a Palestine resistance icon”, the recently released Kufiya shirt -with which the club has contributed financially to the Ayda refugee camp in Belén -or the flags made with debris of the city of Gaza, are just some of the projects that Palestinus has launched in the most recent past.
These initiatives have made sales shoot, stimulated both by the emotional value of the Palestinian symbol and by key events that marked the team and resonated worldwide.
“The turning point occurred in 2014, when the shirt was presented with the historical map of Palestine (…) and was further enhanced after the start of genocide in Gaza, in October 2023,” he says abused.
Each Palestinian shirt is conceived as a “blank canvas” in which a work team made up of professional designers and club leaders try to give each garment a cultural and emotional sense, without neglecting innovation and visual aesthetics.
“We always incorporate symbolic elements, such as the Kufiya, the map or phrases that evoke memory, resistance and pride. The idea is that the final design connects both with local fans and the diaspora abroad, so that everyone feels represented,” says the director.
The countries with the greatest demand, according to official club data, are France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Morocco and Turkey, places where the Palestinian shirt has transcended mere sports article to a symbol of solidarity and support for the Palestinian cause.
David Marambio, owner of the Tifossi football antique store, in the Santiago commune of Providencia, accounts for the extra -community magnitude that Palestine has grabbed in recent years.
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The Palestinian sports club shirt, the success of sales that overcomes borders
“The majority of sales that I make of Palestinian t -shirts are people who support the cause and, especially, people from outside Chile, which helps me to acquire an international concept,” he explains.
Today, the Tifossi store is one of the few establishments in Chile where you can buy the official Palestinian shirt and the only one that still has historical t -shirts of the Arab club, like that of 2014, to which Marambio baptized at the time as “the prohibited shirt”, a term that became very famous and recurring.
The success of the Palestinian shirt has also reached the market for aftershocks and falsifications.
In the bustling and busy streets of the Patronato neighborhood, in Santiago, between restaurants and clothing stores, cheap footwear and products of all kinds, a small street post appears in which replicas of football shirts are sold.
Next to the elastic of historical national and international teams, such as Universidad de Chile, Colo Colo, FC Barcelona or Manchester United, highlights a white and red stripes.
“Many of the foreign tourists who come to visit the neighborhood pass by and ask for the Palestinian shirt. Some do not even know the club, they see that it is from Palestine, for the colors and the symbols, they ask for their history and end up buying it,” says Efe Ricardo, the person in charge of the position.
In this sense, abused regrets the rise of falsifications, but it is also proud that the shirt reaches a global audience and continues to spread “the identity and values of the club”.
Varied characters as the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, former soccer player Carles Puyol, the artist Roger Waters and even the late Pope Francis have looked or posed with the Palestinian shirt, recognizing the symbolic value that represents and showing his support to the Palestinian community.
From the club’s direction they claim to live this reality with “deep pride” and “great responsibility” and celebrate that a sports shirt has become a political, cultural and solidarity symbol with international repercussion.
“We are excited to see how something that is born in football has managed to transcend borders and connect with people from different places, cultures and ages, all united by a common message of identity, memory and support for the Palestinian cause,” he celebrates abused.
Today, Palestine marches second in the Chilean League, fighting for the positions that give direct access to Copa Libertadores, a scenario that will allow the club to remain flag bearer of the Palestinian identity and resilience beyond the national borders.
With EFE information.
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