Australia’s national soccer team with the two St. Pauli professionals Jackson Irvine and Connor Metcalfe wants to donate part of their bonuses for the World Cup qualifier against Palestine to humanitarian causes in the Gaza Strip.
The money will flow to the international aid organization Oxfam via the Australian players’ union PFA, Irvine confirmed before the game in Kuwait.
“We talked about it as a group,” the 30-year-old captain of FC St. Pauli told the Australian news agency AAP. It is difficult for them as opponents to “just think about the Palestinian players and what this game means for them as people.”
Regardless of the fact that the Gaza war was sparked by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Irvine said: “Ultimately, I support any humanitarian cause. The death of civilians is a tragedy in any conflict and that must be the priority in this one be a topic.”