{"id":308900,"date":"2026-02-21T00:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308900\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:27:07","slug":"shelbournes-joey-obrien-says-ireland-should-not-play-against-israel-in-nations-league-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308900\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelbourne\u2019s Joey O\u2019Brien says Ireland should not play against Israel in Nations League \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelbourne<\/a> manager Joey O\u2019Brien<\/a> believes that the Republic of Ireland<\/a> should not fulfil the Nations League fixtures against Israel in September and October.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien has been an advocate for plight of the Palestinian people for several years and he previously criticised the actions of Israel in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easy for me to give my own personal opinion, everyone knows my opinion by now,\u201d said O\u2019Brien after Shels 1-1 draw with Galway United at Tolka Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FAI should not have been put in this position. I think the way the FAI went about telling Uefa [to suspend Israel], through the clubs, was the right way to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t envy all the young players who will be asked about this all the way up to the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a motion from the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) general assembly in November calling for Israel to be suspended from all Uefa<\/a> competitions, the association stated last week that they intend to play Israel on September 27th and October 4th.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has supported the FAI position.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it should be happening,\u201d O\u2019Brien added. \u201cThe FAI did it the right way and they were rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy support for the Palestinian people is unwavering.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien also supported Joanna Byrne, the Drogheda United co-chairperson and Louth TD, who alleged that the Drogheda board asked for her resignation after she called for the Israel games to be boycotted. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was her personal opinion and as an elected TD she has to have a voice for the people. I would 100 per cent support her right to express an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Ireland international also said he would ask the Shelbourne board to not play an Israeli club if drawn against them in European competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am employed by this football club. As manager I can say \u2018no, we should not play them\u2019 but there are consequences and fall out off the back of that decision, so other people who are higher up in the club and associations would make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

On whether the situation has changed in Israel since the US brokered ceasefire, O\u2019Brien added: \u201cI don\u2019t think it has changed. I think that is an irrelevant point. It is a difficult situation for the FAI as there could be a fallout around hosting Euro 2028. There is all this stuff in the background.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelbourne manager Joey O\u2019Brien believes that the Republic of Ireland should not fulfil the Nations League fixtures against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,3410,145019,2539,43,1842,90444],"class_list":{"0":"post-308900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-joey-o-brien","12":"tag-league-of-ireland","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","15":"tag-shelbourne-fc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308900","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=308900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}