Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue said it is the FAI\u2019s decision to play the game with Israel and the Government respects that decision.<\/p>\n
Mr McConalgoue said he will not be attending the October match, but claimed that the FAI finds itself in a \u201cchallenging situation\u201d as it would face penalties from governing body Uefa if it were to boycott the match.<\/p>\n
He told RT\u00c9’s The Week in Politics programme that the coalition will continue to \u201cshow leadership in the political arena internationally on this issue\u201d in a bid to bring “unity” around sanctions and other measures against Israel.<\/p>\n
However, opposition parties have strongly hit out at the Government’s stance on the soccer match, with Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> and the Social Democrats bringing forward D\u00e1il motions calling for a boycott of the fixture.<\/p>\n Social Democrats sports spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney described Mr McConalogue’s remarks as a “cop-out”, saying he has had “ignored previous political precedent of an Irish government stepping in to stop an international soccer game when the Irish team was scheduled to play the team of a country engaged in war crimes”.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cIn 1999, the then Fianna F\u00e1il government prevented a Euro 2000 qualifying match between Ireland and Yugoslavia from taking place because of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo. This was despite the fact that Uefa had turned down a request from the government to cancel the game.<\/p>\n