{"id":469919,"date":"2026-05-27T18:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469919\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:05:09","slug":"sports-ministers-say-they-will-not-attend-israel-ireland-football-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469919\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports ministers say they will not attend Israel\/Ireland football match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two sports ministers have said they will not attend the upcoming football match between Ireland and Israel.<\/p>\n

Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan and Charlie McConalogue, who is a minister of state with a special responsibility for sport, appeared before an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

They were asked about the Government\u2019s response to the controversial Nations League fixture.<\/p>\n

The Republic of Ireland team are due to face Israel at a neutral venue on September 27th and in Dublin on October 4th.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD Padraig O\u2019Sullivan said he attends all of Ireland\u2019s home games but was choosing not to attend the matches with Israel \u201cas a form of personal protest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both ministers said they also do not intend to attend the match.<\/p>\n

Earlier the Social Democrats\u2019 Sinead Gibney had asked them whether the Government had spoken to the FAI about covering any sanctions they might face, should Ireland withdraw from the games.<\/p>\n

Playing the matches was a matter for the FAI to decide, McConalogue said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019d be significant repercussions for them within the Uefa system,\u201d he added \u201cwhich is for them to consider and they\u2019ve made their call and we support their decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also confirmed the Government had not taken legal advice about what potential sanctions the FAI might face if they were not to go ahead with the fixtures.<\/p>\n

Gibney pressed McConalogue repeatedly as to whether he thought the situation amounted to \u201csportswashing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sportswashing refers to the use of sporting events or teams by governments, individuals and organisations to improve their image by distracting from unethical or controversial activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s sportswashing,\u201d he replied, \u201cI believe it\u2019s a matter for the footballing bodies to make their decision on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as a government, make a decision that we\u2019ve led out and continue to lead out in relation to setting the tone internationally in relation to the recent Israeli actions in Palestine and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick O\u2019Donovan is also Minister for Media and Gibney asked if he had \u201ccommitted to supporting RT\u00c9 to get out of its broadcasting contract to broadcast the Israeli fixtures?\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the broadcaster had made \u201cno approach\u201d to his department.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Dark clouds for Fianna F\u00e1il and Sinn F\u00e9in in byelections<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked if the Government had approached RT\u00c9, O\u2019Donovan said it was an \u201ceditorial matter\u201d and if he attempted to contact the broadcaster, Gibney \u201cwould be the very first person\u201d to say he had overstepped his remit.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin was also asked on Wednesday if fans of the Irish football team should \u201cexamine their conscience\u201d before attending the match.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cwe desperately need perspective on this\u201d, adding that Ireland had taken a \u201cstrong principled stance\u201d on Israel\u2019s actions, and to focus the debate on a football match \u201cdoes not do justice to the enormity or complexity of the issue\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two sports ministers have said they will not attend the upcoming football match between Ireland and Israel. Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-469919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469919","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=469919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}