{"id":468219,"date":"2026-05-26T18:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468219\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:30:17","slug":"we-shouldnt-be-playing-some-opposition-tds-call-for-cancellation-of-ireland-israel-game-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468219\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We shouldn\u2019t be playing\u2019: Some Opposition TDs call for cancellation of Ireland-Israel game \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some politicians have called for Ireland\u2019s upcoming Nations League<\/a> football game against Israel<\/a> to be cancelled. <\/p>\n

Ireland were drawn to play against Israel at home in Dublin this October. The fixture immediately sparked concerns about security and protests. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) confirmed the game would go ahead after it was told that An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> believed it could deliver a \u201csafe and secure\u201d environment for the match. <\/p>\n

Newly elected Social Democrats<\/a> TD Daniel Ennis<\/a>, who is a former League of Ireland player, said he does not believe the game should go ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be playing that game, we simply shouldn\u2019t be playing it … The FAI should be taking a stand and our Irish Government should be taking a stand on that,\u201d Ennis said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFootball and sport is a universal language built on respect. And how can you stand shoulder to shoulder and line up against a genocidal regime like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The fixture is confirmed for October 4th at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Ennis said it was a \u201ctough one\u201d for players who are expected to participate in the game.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0FAI members unhappy over Ireland v Israel can still stop the games. A legal adviser explains howOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI have friends who are former internationals and it\u2019s a very, very proud achievement \u2013 a moment to play and be selected by a country. Your governing body, your sporting governing body should be stepping in and in that case it\u2019s the FAI. And that should be supported by the Government.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked if fans should boycott the match, Ennis said: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger<\/a> said rather than a boycott by fans her \u201cpreference\u201d would be that the game is stopped from going ahead in the first place. <\/p>\n

Coppinger said she would call on workers, for example airport and hotel workers, to take strike action \u2013 \u201clike happened with the Dunnes Stores strike against apartheid,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it does happen that [the Israeli team and supporters] do get into the country … on the day itself, we should surround the Aviva Stadium and stop this match from happening.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her colleague Richard Boyd Barrett said he believed that \u201cvery few\u201d fans would plan to attend the game.<\/p>\n

Coppinger added: \u201cWe are putting this on the Government and the FAI, not on fans or anybody else.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some politicians have called for Ireland\u2019s upcoming Nations League football game against Israel to be cancelled. Ireland were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,194872,615,13446,61,60,3410,59269,43,43923,1842,59995,1419],"class_list":["post-468219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-daniel-ennis","tag-dublin","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-ruth-coppinger","tag-social-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468219","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=468219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}