Political and sporting figures have called for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to boycott scheduled soccer fixtures against Israel in the Nations League, with Uefa criticised for putting Ireland in a difficult position by refusing to suspend the Israel Football Association.
The FAI confirmed on Thursday after the Nations League draw’s conclusion that it intended to fulfil the fixtures as scheduled.
Sinn Féin criticised the decision. In a statement on Thursday evening, the party’s spokeswoman on culture, communications and sport, Joanna Byrne, said: “In November, the FAI voted to submit a motion to UEFA to ban Israel from its European club and international competitions. That was the correct moral and principled position to take.
“Therefore, I am extremely angry and dismayed that the FAI have confirmed they will play against Israel. It appears that their morals, and principled position, was only on paper – not in actions where it counts.”
Byrne, chair of League of Ireland club Drogheda United, also levelled criticism at Uefa, and said European football’s governing body should have expelled Israel “as soon as Israel went into Gaza on a genocidal, ethnic cleansing mission that has seen tens of thousands of innocents murdered, including hundreds of sports men and women”.
The Louth TD criticised “double standards” which saw Russia expelled but Israel allowed to remain.
The vote Byrne referenced occurred last November, when the FAI passed a motion calling for Israel to be banned from competing in Uefa competitions. That vote was proposed by Bohemian Football Club, whose chief commercial officer, Daniel Lambert, spoke to Newstalk’s Off the Ball on Thursday evening.
Lambert said Uefa should have already expelled Israel from its competitions, and that unfair pressure was now being placed on the FAI, Irish players and fans.
“This situation is already legislated for in the Uefa statutes,” he said. “There’s a rule book there, and that rule book exists for a very good reason.”
Lambert said Israel had “teams playing in occupied territories, without the permission of the Palestinian FA, and the penalty for that is suspension and expulsion”.
“I’d call on the Irish Government, other high profile Irish sportspeople, people within the game [and] outside of the game,” he said. “We should all be absolutely calling for Uefa to suspend Israel, because we should not be put in this position.”
On the prospect of Ireland now boycotting the fixtures, Lambert said he would not personally attend or support the games if they went ahead, but reiterated that he believed it was an unfair decision for Irish football to face.
“I do feel [a boycott] would be effective. I think it would represent the mood of the Irish people, but I don’t think that it’s something that should be placed on the shoulders of the FAI or the players or fans,” he said.
Fine Gael Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn said the onus to resolve the situation was on “huge global bodies” like Fifa or Uefa, and not on a small nation like Ireland.
“Last November the FAI issued a formal request to UEFA for the immediate suspension of the Israel Football Association from UEFA competitions for a breach of UEFA statutes,” Ní Chuilinn said. “UEFA failed to do so, but Ireland can’t be expected to take sanctions for not fulfilling their fixtures. The duty here lies with the superpowers, not the minnows.”
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A spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport said: “National governing bodies of sport and international sporting federations, including the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), are independent, autonomous bodies responsible for the governance of their own sports, including the organisation of sporting fixtures.
“The Government and Sport Ireland have no role in determining or supporting the organisation of such fixtures.”