{"id":524700,"date":"2026-06-29T20:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524700\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:19:15","slug":"irelands-home-game-against-israel-to-be-played-in-serbia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524700\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s home game against Israel to be played in Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"intro\">This development follows confirmation earlier this month that Ireland&#8217;s Nations League fixture against Israel would be played overseas and behind closed doors despite backlash from activists who wanted the game abandoned. <\/p>\n<p>The FAI have announced that the Republic of Ireland\u2019s home Nations League fixture against Israel will be played behind closed doors in Serbia on Sunday, October 4.<\/p>\n<p>The match will be played at the 4,500-capacity TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola, home to Serbian first division side FC TSC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis follows a decision taken by the FAI Board to move the fixture to a neutral territory due to operational challenges that could impact on the delivery of the game on home soil,\u201d said the FAI in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The development comes weeks after the FAI confirmed that the game would be moved overseas to a neutral venue, with RTE reporting at the time it was \u2018very likely\u2019 to be played in Hungary.<\/p>\n<p>It has not been revealed how Serbia was chosen as the venue. UEFA previously announced that Israel\u2019s \u2018home\u2019 game will take place in Hungary on September 27.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to fulfil away fixtures and the designated home match against the Israelis on October 4 has generated opposition and protest.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Operating Officer of Bohemians FC and member of the Stop the Game campaign, Daniel Lambert, previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hotpress.com\/culture\/stop-the-game-campaign-were-going-to-ignore-apartheid-but-adhere-to-the-rules-of-this-competition-its-total-nonsense-23145003\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Hot Press\u00a0<\/a>that the decision to play Ireland\u2019s Nations League fixture overseas was \u201ctotal hypocrisy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is unfair\u2026 [the players have] been let down, they\u2019ve been let down by the FAI, and this shouldn\u2019t be a decision that they have to make,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cMy interpretation is they want the decision taken away from them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael is practising apartheid. The Irish government\u2019s position is that Israel is practising apartheid. We are going to ignore that, but we are going to adhere to the rules of this competition. It\u2019s total nonsense. It\u2019s a ludicrous position to take.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The association said they plan to update season ticket holders and Club Ireland members regarding compensation owed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This development follows confirmation earlier this month that Ireland&#8217;s Nations League fixture against Israel would be played overseas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-524700","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\/524700","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=524700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}