{"id":494898,"date":"2026-06-11T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494898\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:43:09","slug":"boycotting-israel-match-would-mean-not-taking-part-in-2028-olympics-minister-claims-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494898\/","title":{"rendered":"Boycotting Israel match would mean not taking part in 2028 Olympics, Minister claims \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland would not have a team at the next Olympic Games in 2028<\/a> if the D\u00e1il had accepted Opposition motions debated over the past two days, the Minister of State for Sport has claimed.<\/p>\n

Charlie McConalogue<\/a> told Sinn F\u00e9in spokeswoman for sport Joanna Byrne it was the \u201clogical workout\u201d of what her party and the Social Democrats<\/a> were proposing in their Private Members\u2019 debates earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> motion called on the Government to support a boycott of the Ireland-Israel Nations League<\/a> game, scheduled for Dublin in September and in Israel the following month.<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats called for Israel\u2019s exclusion from all international sporting fixtures.<\/p>\n

The Government insisted in its countermotions to both parties that the issue was a matter solely for the FAI.<\/p>\n

The two motions were defeated in the D\u00e1il by 81 to 68 votes on Wednesday night. Independent TD Barry Heneghan, who usually supports the Government, voted with the Opposition.<\/p>\n

During D\u00e1il questions on Thursday the Sinn F\u00e9in TD renewed her call for the Minister to explain why \u201cit\u2019s okay\u201d for him and his senior colleague Patrick O\u2019Donovan \u201cto publicly state you won\u2019t attend these fixtures\u201d but expect the football team \u201cto shoulder that burden\u201d.<\/p>\n

McConalogue reiterated the Government\u2019s view that it was a \u201cwell-established principle internationally that sporting organisations and federations internationally are responsible for the conduct of sport\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Uefa at a European level, and Fifa at the world level, who decide and make policy decisions in relation to whether or not teams and countries participate in competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Push to boycott Ireland-Israel games kicks off in the D\u00e1ilOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Minister told the TD the content of the Opposition motions \u201cwould ultimately mean Irish athletes would not participate in international sports competitions in which Israel is also participating. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, this would ultimately mean we would not be in a position to have any athletes participating in the next LA Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cObviously, we recognise the difficult position the FAI is in here with regard to the draw and having two games to participate in, but it has to work within the Uefa structures.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis is a matter for the FAI to decide, and the Government fully respects that. It is not appropriate for the Government to interfere here.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Louth said the Minister \u201cstill can\u2019t grasp the magnitude of what this means to the Irish football and community. They don\u2019t want this match to proceed\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want to normalise sportswashing, and Ireland playing Israel normalises a genocidal regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Minister insisted it would be \u201cunprecedented\u201d to follow through on the Opposition\u2019s proposals, which meant \u201cnot participating in international sporting competitions, including not participating in the next Olympic Games as a country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan expressed concern about security and the level of engagement the FAI has had with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and Dublin City Council if the match were to be played in Dublin. <\/p>\n

The Minister said the department has spoken with the FAI but is not involved in the operational details. <\/p>\n

The FAI has \u201congoing engagement with the Garda\u201d and with international football organisations. There are \u201creports\u201d the FAI is considering whether the match will be played in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the Garda has indicated to the FAI that it is willing to police the game but they continue to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland would not have a team at the next Olympic Games in 2028 if the D\u00e1il had accepted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,7038,112],"class_list":["post-494898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494898","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=494898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}