Like dozens of national football teams, Spain will be hoping to secure its place at the 2026 World Cup in the current international window. But, for more than 50,000 fans in the San Mames stadium in the northern city of Bilbao on Saturday, the focus of attention was squarely on two teams who won't be there: the Palestine and Basque Country national football teams.

The streets of Bilbao were packed with Palestinian flags, with supporters of both clubs united by a shared cause. Money raised from the match went to Doctors Without Borders , and the entertainment before the players crossed the white line comprised a mix of the two cultures.

"When Palestine was eliminated from the World Cup qualifiers, we saw an opportunity to show solidarity with them," Mikel De Gregorio,the  sporting director of the Basque Football Federation, told DW. As everyone DW spoke with on the day did, he mentioned the genocide in Gaza, as determined by a UN commission of inquiry in September , the findings of which were rejected by Israel. Current estimates put the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza in over two years of Israeli attacks at approaching 70,000. The strikes were preceded by the Hamas-led incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Message of solidarity

"Palestine is living through a genocide, they are being massacred in Gaza, and history will ask us what we were doing at that moment to try to stop it," De Gregorio said.

"And from the world of sports, from football, what we are trying to do is help economically and give visibility worldwide to this match and this situation," he said. "What we want is to send that solidarity to the Palestinian people, so everyone can see it."

This was certainly the case on Saturday. Palestine lost the match 3-0 but that was not front of mind for most in attendance, whether on the pitch or in the stands. 

"This is amazing. I really didn't expect so many people on the streets and the crowd. I didn't expect this support but it was amazing," said right back Emilio Saba, who recently switched international footballing allegiance to Palestine from Peru.

"It showed that we are together," Saba said, "not only Palestinian people, you know, the whole world."         

Saba, like nearly all of the remaining Palestinian team, is based abroad. Since the war began after the 2023 Hamas-led incursion, there has been no league, no functioning clubs, and hundreds of athletes have been wounded or killed, including the country's most famous footballer, Suleiman Al-Obeid, 41, nicknamed the "Palestinian Pele."

The Palestine Football Association said he was killed when Israel attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid.

Basque search for FIFA recognition

Palestine, as it is known by football's global governors, FIFA, has not played a home game since 2019, although a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war perhaps makes a return slightly more feasible. But the team is recognized by FIFA, unlike the Basque region of Spain, despite the best efforts of De Gregorio and others in the federation.

Euskal Herriko futbol selekzioa, as the team is known in Basque, play ad hoc friendlies using a team made up of players born in the autonomous Basque region in Spain and the French Basque country. The unofficial national team has seen World Cup winners such as Xabi Alonso (Spain) and Bixente Lizarazu (France) turn out for them before and boasts a strong squad from the top league in Spain, though Basque-born players prioritize playing for the official national team. Any eligible for Saturday's game would instead have played in Spain's 4-0 win over Georgia.

The Basque federation's president told DW that Saturday's game was the most significant in its history, noting that while the devastation in Gaza was incomparable, the Basque desire for independence from Spain had parallels with the desires of its footballing opponents.

"We are a culture with our own language, our own identity, our own traditions, and sometimes it's difficult to explain to the rest of the world that we want our place in the world. So from that point of view, I think we see some similarities with (the) situation of Palestine."

TV blackout on La Liga Palestine support

Such backing mirrors that shown by the biggest club sides in the Basque region. Real Sociedad, Eibar, Alaves and Osasuna have all shown support in their stadiums. Athletic Bilbao, who usually play at San Mames, have unfurled banners of support in the Champions League and invited a group of Palestinian refugees onto the pitch in October while displaying the message: "Athletic Palestinaren alde. Stop genozidioa," meaning "Athletic stands with Palestine. Stop the genocide."

The scenes were blocked in broadcasts of the La Liga match, leading Athletic's Spanish international goalkeeper, Unai Simon, to say: "It was very beautiful and emotional. It really saddens me that it wasn't shown on TV."

Fellow Spanish side Real Madrid have banned Palestinian flags from their matches, but Spain were one of the earliest European nations to recognize the Palestinian territories as a state, in May 2024. In September, the final stage of high-profile cycling event the Vuelta a Espana was abandoned in Madrid after pro-Palestinian protests.

After Saturday's game, Palestine travel to another autonomous region of Spain, Catalonia, to face the Catalan national side, which has a similarly rich footballing history. Though none of these teams will be traveling to North America in June, they have proved capable of making themselves, and each other, heard.

Miguel Cano in Bilbao contributed to this report.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold