{"id":292396,"date":"2026-02-11T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292396\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:00:07","slug":"republic-of-ireland-could-face-israel-in-nations-league-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292396\/","title":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland could face Israel in Nations League \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nations League<\/a> draw in Brussels on Thursday evening could land the Republic of Ireland<\/a> in a group containing Israel.<\/p>\n

Last November, the FAI<\/a>\u2019s general assembly voted 74-7 in favour of a motion to Uefa calling for the \u201cimmediate suspension\u201d of the Israel Football Association from European club and international competitions. <\/p>\n

The FAI motion, proposed by Bohemians, noted \u201cthe organisation of clubs in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank without the consent of the Palestinian Football Association, [is] in breach of Fifa statutes (Article 73) and Uefa statutes (Article 5)\u201d and the highlighted the \u201cfailure\u201d of the Israeli association \u201cto implement and enforce an effective antiracism policy\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, on the same day the motion passed, FAI president Paul Cooke said Ireland would fulfil any fixture with Israel if drawn against them in a Uefa-sanctioned competition. <\/p>\n

Responding to the FAI in December, Uefa said the situation was being \u201cclosely monitored\u201d and pointed out that no international or European club matches are taking place in Israel \u201cuntil further notice\u201d due to safety and security concerns.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s \u201chome\u201d qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup were held in the Hungarian city of Debrecen.<\/p>\n

Hungary, Scotland and Poland are the other potential top-seed opposition Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s side could be drawn against in League B when the Nations League returns in September.<\/p>\n

Hallgr\u00edmsson will attend the draw, which takes place at 5pm on Thursday, in Brussels following Uefa\u2019s annual congress. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hallgr\u00edmsson says Fifa and Uefa should ban Israel from club and international competitions (October 2025)Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ireland are ranked 27th by Uefa, which puts them in Pot 3 in League B draw alongside Slovenia, Georgia and Romania.<\/p>\n

The second seed will come from Pot 2, containing Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and Ukraine, with the fourth seeds being Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland and Kosovo. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be drawn in the same group as Kosovo for historical reasons.<\/p>\n

Uefa have condensed the international fixture list to six matches, three at home and three away, between September 24th and November 17th.<\/p>\n

League A<\/p>\n

Pot 1: Portugal, Spain, France, Germany. <\/p>\n

Pot 2: Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia. <\/p>\n

Pot 3: Serbia, Belgium, England, Norway. <\/p>\n

Pot 4: Wales, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey<\/p>\n

League B<\/p>\n

Pot 1: Scotland, Hungary, Poland, Israel<\/p>\n

Pot 2: Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Ukraine<\/p>\n

Pot 3: Slovenia, Georgia, Republic of Ireland, Romania<\/p>\n

Pot 4: Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Kosovo<\/p>\n

League C<\/p>\n

Pot 1: Iceland, Albania, Montenegro, Kazakhstan<\/p>\n

Pot 2: Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Armenia<\/p>\n

Pot 3: Belarus, Faroe Islands, Cyprus, Estonia<\/p>\n

Pot 4: Latvia or Gibraltar, Luxembourg or Malta, Moldova, San Marino<\/p>\n

League D<\/p>\n

Pot 1: Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Gibraltar or Latvia, Malta or Luxembourg<\/p>\n

Pot 2: Liechtenstein, Andorra<\/p>\n

Matchday 1: September 24th-26th<\/p>\n

Matchday 2: September 27th-29th <\/p>\n

Matchday 3: September 30th-October 3rd<\/p>\n

Matchday 4: October 4th-6th <\/p>\n

Matchday 5: November 12th-14th <\/p>\n

Matchday 6: November 15th-17th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nations League draw in Brussels on Thursday evening could land the Republic of Ireland in a group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13446,4700,61,60,3410,59269,43,1842,30918],"class_list":["post-292396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}