{"id":18816,"date":"2025-07-24T15:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18816\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:28:08","slug":"basketball-ireland-assessing-next-steps-after-womens-team-drawn-in-group-with-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18816\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball Ireland \u2018assessing next steps\u2019 after women\u2019s team drawn in group with Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball Ireland has said it is assessing its \u201cnext steps\u201d after being drawn in a qualifying group for the women\u2019s European basketball<\/a> championships that includes the Israeli<\/a> national team.<\/p>\n

The organisation said it was \u201cextremely alarmed by the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza<\/a>\u201d, and did not confirm that it would play the fixture as scheduled.<\/p>\n

It said it was \u201cawaiting clarifications on a number of matters\u201d with Fiba Europe, the European basketball governing body.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Basketball Ireland declined to provide details to The Irish Times on what matters it had raised with Fiba Europe and what clarifications had been sought from the body.<\/p>\n

Basketball Ireland said it \u201cwill also be liaising with players, coaching staff, Sport Ireland, the Government, and other stakeholders over the coming days\u201d. The organisation expects to provide an update on the situation next week. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport<\/a> said Basketball Ireland was an independent body and was \u201cautonomous in their decision making, including regarding the organisation of and participation in international sporting competitions\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cNeither the Minister nor the department has any role in this regard and there has been no communication recently on this matter between the department and Basketball Ireland,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The Irish women\u2019s squad is ranked 81st in the world, while the Israeli national team is 47th. The two teams are first scheduled to play each other on November 18th in Israel, the Irish squad\u2019s final fixture in the early stages of the qualifying round.<\/p>\n

Basketball Ireland would suffer a fine of up to \u20ac80,000 if the team failed to play the game after the qualifying competition started, the organisation said. \u201cFailure to play the return game would lead to a fine of up to \u20ac100,000\u201d and removal from the next two European basketball championships, in 2027 and 2029, it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould Basketball Ireland elect to withdraw from the FIBA Women\u2019s EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers campaign entirely before they commence, a fine of up to \u20ac30,000 would be applied\u201d, as well as \u201cadditional sanctions\u201d from FIBA Europe which could include \u201cexclusion from future competitions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Basketball Ireland secured a core grant from Sporting Ireland last year of \u20ac900,000, with a \u20ac63,908 grant earmarked for \u201cwomen in sport\u201d. Financial statements showed the organisation was working at a \u20ac188,000 deficit last year.<\/p>\n

The Irish team also expressed discomfort with fulfilling fixtures against the Israeli team last year. Basketball Ireland said it could not \u201cguarantee the safety of the Israeli team\u201d playing a fixture in Dublin due to \u201cthe likelihood of protests\u201d over their presence in the State.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0From the archive: Basketball Ireland CEO on playing Israel game: \u2018I\u2019m not prepared to destroy my sport for a gesture that will have no impact\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Israeli team member Dor Saar said last year that \u201cit\u2019s known that they [Ireland] are quite anti-Semitic, it\u2019s not a secret\u201d, which Basketball Ireland strongly denied and condemned. <\/p>\n

The fixtures were played, although \u201ctraditional prematch arrangements\u201d, such as players shaking hands and exchanging gifts, were not carried out.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How did the Irish women\u2019s basketball team become embroiled in controversy over Israel?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Israel won both the first game, which led to the terse exchange of words, and the return fixture, both taking place in Riga. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basketball Ireland has said it is assessing its \u201cnext steps\u201d after being drawn in a qualifying group for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,19959,6897,85],"class_list":["post-18816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-gaza-strip","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}