{"id":524334,"date":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524334\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:30:10","slug":"republic-of-irelands-home-match-with-israel-switched-to-behind-closed-door-venue-in-serbia-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524334\/","title":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland\u2019s home match with Israel switched to behind-closed-door venue in Serbia \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Republic of Ireland<\/a> will play their contentious Nations League<\/a> game with Israel<\/a> (scheduled for Dublin on October 4) behind closed doors at the TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola, Serbia.<\/p>\n

The 4,500-seat venue could certainly be described as off the beaten track and it is home to Topolyai Sport Club (TSC) who play in the Serbian Premier League.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the FAI said the decision taken to move the fixture to a neutral territory was due to \u201coperational challenges that could impact on the delivery of the game on home soil\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

\"Ospreys<\/a>\"Republic<\/a><\/p>\n

Mass protests highlighting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East were guaranteed had the game gone ahead in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Republic of Ireland fans threw tennis balls with the Palestinian flag on them and the slogan \u2018Stop the game\u2019 on them onto the pitch during the pre-World Cup<\/a> friendly against Qatar at the Aviva Stadium in May.<\/p>\n

Irish fans and pundits have called for the game to be boycotted in response to Israel\u2019s ongoing military actions against Palestine<\/a> which a UN commission has described as genocide. <\/p>\n

Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has previously condemned Israel\u2019s actions against the Palestinian people, but he doesn\u2019t want to boycott the autumn games, and his argument is based on footballing reasons.<\/p>\n

The change of venue has been approved by Uefa with the kick-off time to be confirmed in due course.<\/p>\n

This announcement completes the venue scheduling for Ireland\u2019s upcoming Uefa Nations League campaign. It follows the confirmation that the first encounter with Israel will take place at the Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary, on Sunday, September 27.<\/p>\n

Ireland will open their campaign away to Kosovo on Thursday, September 24, before traveling to Hungary. The team will return to the Aviva Stadium on Thursday, October 1 to face Austria, prior to the fixture in Serbia.<\/p>\n

As a result of the change of venue for the Israel fixture, the FAI will update its 2026 FAI Season Ticket holders and Club Ireland members regarding compensation owed.<\/p>\n

2026-27 UEFA Nations League fixtures:<\/p>\n

Thursday, September 24: Kosovo v Ireland, Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri, Pristina, 7.45pm<\/p>\n

Sunday, September 27: Israel v Ireland, Nagyerdei Stadion, Debrecen (Hungary), 7.45pm<\/p>\n

Thursday, October 1: Ireland v Austria, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 7.45pm<\/p>\n

Sunday, October 4: Ireland v Israel, TSC Arena, Ba\u010dka Topola (Serbia), TBC<\/p>\n

Saturday, November 14: Austria v Ireland, Raiffeisen Arena, Linz, 7.45pm<\/p>\n

Tuesday, November 17: Ireland v Kosovo, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 7.45pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Republic of Ireland will play their contentious Nations League game with Israel (scheduled for Dublin on October…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,3410,59269,43,4268,3404,63511],"class_list":["post-524334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-serbia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524334","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=524334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}