{"id":472261,"date":"2026-05-29T01:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472261\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:34:09","slug":"ireland-and-qatar-halted-twice-by-protests-against-upcoming-israel-fixtures-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472261\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland and Qatar halted twice by protests against upcoming Israel fixtures | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republic of Ireland are set to face Israel twice in UEFA Nations League matches, but are facing calls for a boycott.<\/p>\n

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Published On 28 May 202628 May 2026<\/p>\n

The international football friendly between the Republic of Ireland and Qatar in Dublin was twice halted by home fan protests against their side\u2019s upcoming fixtures against Israel.<\/p>\n

The Irish are due to face Israel twice in the UEFA Nations League competition, but have faced strong backlash against the fixtures with calls for the games to be boycotted.<\/p>\n

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Tennis balls covered by images of the Palestinian flag were thrown onto the field of play after 10 and 20 minutes of Thursday\u2019s match at Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital, causing play to be halted.<\/p>\n

Qatar were playing the fixture as part of their preparation for this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup, for which the Irish failed to qualify.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Irish parliament \u2013 the Dail \u2013 saw new protests over the Israel fixtures, while the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) passed a motion in November requesting that UEFA immediately suspend Israel from international competition, but received no support from European football\u2019s governing body.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s pre-match news conference, ahead of the Qatar fixture, Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson challenged his players to \u201cwin this war<\/a>\u201d against Israel when asked about the Nations League encounters.<\/p>\n

\"HeimirHeimir Hallgrimsson, manager of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s team, helps to clear tennis balls which have been thrown onto the pitch as a protest to an upcoming match between the Republic of Ireland and Israel [Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n

The Icelander has previously added his name to calls for Israel to be banned from international football, and added in the media briefing: \u201cIt\u2019s an obstacle I don\u2019t like, and it\u2019s unfair for the players to be in this position and us to be in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a footballing perspective, I don\u2019t like us to be the bad guys. We are not the bad guys here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The first match between the sides will be played at a neutral venue between the sides on September 27, while the return encounter will be played in Dublin on October 4.<\/p>\n

The Nations League acts as a standalone competition which progresses from group stages to knockouts and a final, but also doubles as part of a qualification opportunity for sides for UEFA and FIFA tournaments.<\/p>\n

The FAI have said that both Israel matches will go ahead, while speaking in the build-up to the Qatar match, Ireland captain Nathan Collins said: \u201cIf individuals wanted to take a stand, we are not going to stand against them, we are not going to hold them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friendly match against Qatar ended in a 1-0 win for the Irish with Collins\u2019s header settling the match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland are set to face Israel twice in UEFA Nations League matches, but are facing calls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1813,1128,61,60,45231,43,850,102024],"class_list":["post-472261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472261","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=472261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}