{"id":316674,"date":"2026-02-25T15:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316674\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:14:07","slug":"irelands-nations-league-home-game-against-israel-confirmed-for-aviva-stadium-in-october-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/316674\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Nations League home game against Israel confirmed for Aviva Stadium in October \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland<\/a> will host Israel at the Aviva Stadium in the Nations League<\/a> tie on October 4th.<\/p>\n

David Courell<\/a>, the FAI<\/a> chief executive, confirmed the decision after security concerns around hosting the fixture were allayed by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na have been very clear that it can be held in a safe and security environment at the Aviva Stadium,\u201d said Courell. \u201cThe Garda track record is strong. If they can deliver the game in a safe and secure manner. Who am I to challenge that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel have played their \u2018home\u2019 matches in Hungary since November 2023 while in September 2024 Belgium switched a Nations League game from Brussels to Debrecen in Hungary due to security concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a footballing perspective, a decision not to play would have serious consequences\u201d said Paul Cooke, the FAI president, in a letter to General Assembly members. \u201cIt would result in the forfeiture of six points, could lead to relegation to League C of the Nations League, and would damage our seeding for Euro 2028 qualification as well as our overall FIFA ranking. Such outcomes would materially harm the long-term sporting interests of Irish football.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur decision is not financially motivated. However, there would also be significant financial and regulatory consequences were we to refuse to fulfil the fixtures. The Board cannot act in a manner that would place the Association or its directors in breach of their legal duties or expose the FAI to severe sporting, financial and reputational sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 More to follow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland will host Israel at the Aviva Stadium in the Nations League tie on October…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1399,13446,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-316674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aviva-stadium","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316674","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=316674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}