Ireland senior women’s team head coach James Weldon has sympathy for the Football Association of Ireland as the basketball team get set for a IBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 qualifier against Israel on St Patrick’s Day.
Initially Ireland’s basketballers had considered withdrawing from the competition after being drawn with Israel, on account of the country’s actions in Gaza, but with significant financial and participation penalties likely to follow, the sides met behind closed doors in Latvia last November with the return tie also taking place in Riga next week after fixtures against Luxembourg this Wednesday and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday.
The situation shares parallels with the Republic of Ireland men’s soccer team who were drawn alongside Israel in the Nations League, leading to calls for Heimir HallgrÃmsson’s side to withdraw.
Last month, FAI CEO David Courell said that the association had “no choice” but to play the game, with the home fixture to be staged in Dublin on 4 October.
A report last September from the International Commission of Inquiry, set up by the UN’s Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, found Israeli authorities and security forces in Gaza committed four of the five genocidal acts as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The FAI confirmed in a letter to its members that it would be fulfilling the fixtures, stressing that “serious consequences” would result from forfeiting the games, which would “materially harm the long-term sporting interests of Irish football”.
It’s a situation Weldon understands.
“I think everybody between the players and the staff and the federation have managed the situation very professionally and as well as possible,” the Kerry man told RTÉ Sport.
“You know, it’s another game and we have to play the game and we know why we have to play the game.
“We’re trying to protect the future of the sport and that’s what we’re doing.”
The squad gathered on Sunday night ahead of their journey to Luxembourg and Weldon said their approach hasn’t altered too much given the off-field discussion that has accompanied the final leg of their three-game away tour.
“We obviously would have done some preparation work in advance of it, but, I mean, we’ve kind of played those games (against Israel) two or three times at this stage and we haven’t really talked about any kind of different approach to it.
James Weldon’s side are on the road for three games in six days
“We understand nothing has changed with the penalties and the requirements and, you know, it’s a game that must be played a game that we’ll be targeting and winning. We came, very, very close the last time [losing after over-time] so hopefully we can go one better this time around.”
On the FAI, Weldon feels their decision to play the game solidifies the decision of Basketball Ireland.
“I suppose, looking at how the FAI have handled the situation so far, there’s a lot of similarities, like maybe how they’ve kind of dealt with it.
“I suppose that’s a little bit reassuring for us as well.”
There’s two games to be played before that though, and having lost two of their three matches to date, the pressure is on to secure a top-two spot in Group A or be one of three best third-placed finishers from a possible seven to advance to the second round.
While the victory over the group’s top seeds Bosnia and Herzegovina was the highlight of the campaign so far, and the loss to Israel only came after over-time, there was no denying that the side were well under-par in the 53-69 loss to Luxembourg in Dublin last November in the first game of that window.
Weldon admitted that, with just three professional players in the Irish squad, it sometimes takes his players time to adapt from the club leagues to the international arena, and he is hoping to avoid another slow start at Centre National Sportif and Culturel d’Coque.
“We probably didn’t play with the kind of physicality and the pace that international basketball is.
“Even kind of looking at the men in the last window as well, their two performances from game one (Luxembourg) to game two (North Macedonia) were incredibly different.
“Maybe the level of jumping from club basketball to the physicality and pace at senior level, so we will be kind of putting a major emphasis, even last night, to practice and tonight again, trying to get up to that kind of tempo and physicality as soon as possible.”