The Republic of Ireland boycotting this autumn’s games against Israel would cause “significant and lasting harm” to Irish football as well as leading to a potential loss of 10.3m euros (\u00a39m), says the Football Association of Ireland.<\/p>\n
Following the Nations League draw in February, the FAI confirmed it would fulfil the fixtures, with chief executive David Courell saying the governing body had “no choice” and could face “serious consequences” if it pulled out of the games.<\/p>\n
However, an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the FAI’s General Assembly was triggered when more than 10% of its members opposed playing the Nations League games. <\/p>\n
The EGM will take place on Wednesday, 8 July, although its outcome is non-binding on the FAI executive.<\/p>\n
That development followed rising pressure to boycott the games after protests took place outside the Dail (Irish parliament), while May’s friendly with Qatar was twice disrupted when tennis balls featuring the Palestine flag were thrown onto the pitch.<\/p>\n
A ‘Stop the Game’ campaign has also been launched by the group Irish Sport for Palestine.<\/p>\n
A motion put forward by the FAI Board to its members states: “While acknowledging the strength of feeling regarding support for Palestine and the upcoming Uefa Men’s Nations League fixtures, that the members recognise the profound impact that any non-fulfilment of Uefa fixtures would have on Irish football as a whole and on its future development, and accordingly endorses the Association fulfilling its obligations in respect of those fixtures.”<\/p>\n
The FAI board has also outlined its reasons for not boycotting the games on 27 September and 4 October.<\/p>\n
“Having considered all the available information and the consequences of non-fulfilment, the board concluded that refusing to play these fixtures would cause significant and lasting harm to Irish football, with no indication that such an action would result in any change to Israel’s participation in UEFA competitions,” the letter read.<\/p>\n
Both games are scheduled to be played at neutral venues.<\/p>\n
Debrecen in Hungary is to host Israel’s home game on 27 October.<\/p>\n
The Republic of Ireland’s home match is to be played behind closed doors in Backa Topola, Serbia after Uefa approved a request from the FAI due to “operational issues” in staging the game in Dublin.<\/p>\n
In the letter to members, the FAI board indicated that it respected alternative opinions on whether the matches should be played but said a boycott would “result in Uefa disciplinary processes” which would include automatic forfeiture of six points, loss of income and potential disqualification from the competition.<\/p>\n
The letter went on to claim that not playing the games could also lead to Nations League relegation and affect future qualification to World Cups and European Championships.<\/p>\n
The FAI also estimated a financial loss of 10.3m euros which would lead to reduced investment across every level of the game from grassroots upwards. <\/p>\n
The letter went on to state that a boycott would set a precedent for all other Ireland teams, men and women at all age groups, should they be drawn against Israel.<\/p>\n
It also read: “The Association will continue to represent is members’ views, as it has done by bringing forward a motion from its members to the Uefa Executive Committee calling for the suspension of the Israel Football Association from Uefa competitions.”<\/p>\n
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.<\/p>\n
At least 73,035 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,280 children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland boycotting this autumn’s games against Israel would cause “significant and lasting harm” to Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-530328","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\/530328","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=530328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}