The FAI says it will fulfil the games, though the game initially set to be played in Dublin on October 4th has been moved to a neutral venue in Serbia. The \u201caway\u201d fixture will also be played in a neutral venue, in Hungary. <\/p>\n
Why is this meeting happening?<\/p>\n
In November last year, the FAI\u2019s general assembly voted with an 89 per cent majority to submit a request to Uefa to suspend Israel from competition, citing alleged breaches of Fifa and Uefa statutes by the Israeli FA. <\/p>\n
Uefa did not act on the FAI\u2019s request, and so Israel remained free to compete, allowing them to be drawn with Ireland in this year\u2019s Nations League. <\/p>\n
In May, Cork City, Bohemian FC, CK United, the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association of Ireland and the Irish Football Supporters\u2019 Partnership jointly proposed an egm motion calling for the FAI to boycott the games against Israel. <\/p>\n
The FAI subsequently wrote to delegates to inform them this motion was inadmissible, as it had not garnered the number of members\u2019 signatures necessary to convene an egm. In explaining this, the FAI said the board would consider how best to facilitate discussion on the games, and raised the prospect of calling a meeting themselves. That has come to pass. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4JJW34BI6JDFDGZ5KXTDGZ2SJI.jpg\")
A woman makes her view known during a protest against the scheduled Ireland-Israel matches, at FAI headquarters in February. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho So the FAI board submitted the motion instead? <\/p>\n
Yes. Wednesday\u2019s motion does not call for a boycott of the games, and nor does it explicitly mention Israel. It instead calls for members to endorse the playing of all the Nations League games, which technically includes games against Austria and Kosovo.<\/p>\n
Here is the text of the motion in full: \u201cWhile acknowledging the strength of feeling regarding support for Palestine and the upcoming Uefa Men\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is the FAI board saying in support of its own motion?<\/p>\n
The board released a seven-page document to delegates and the media explaining its rationale for fulfilling the fixtures. It says a boycott would \u201ccause significant and lasting harm\u201d as it would leave Irish football \u201cbearing the brunt of disciplinary procedures in isolation\u201d. <\/p>\n
The FAI calculates that the loss of participation income, ticketing, revenue and compensation would cost at least \u20ac5.5 million, potentially rising to almost double that if Ireland were relegated from the Nations League as a consequence. They also say that, were Israel to qualify for Euro 2028, Ireland might be obliged as co-hosts to play and\/or host Israel in the tournament, arguing this would make a boycott \u201cin the short-term both inconsistent and ineffective\u201d. <\/p>\n
![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/C27QVDAYM5DD3MOOIGBQ6X5VCA.jpg\")
Irish fans make a point during last year’s Ireland-Hungary match. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n
The co-proposers of the original motion calling for a boycott (aside from Cork City, whose name doesn\u2019t appear) subsequently circulated a letter to delegates calling for a No vote at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, claiming the FAI\u2019s document contained \u201cunsubstantiated figures and vague assertions\u201d, arguing it was \u201can attempt to scaremonger and shut down any discussion before it even begins\u201d. They also say the FAI\u2019s current plan to play the games at neutral venues \u201conly piles pressure and focus on our players and FAI staff, which isn\u2019t appropriate or fair\u201d. <\/p>\n
What happens if the FAI board loses the vote?<\/p>\n
Defeat for the board would not oblige it to boycott the Israel fixtures \u2013 it could simply decide to carry on with its current plan. Doing so would heighten pressure and scrutiny on the board, however, and directors would probably face calls to resign from some sections of the FAI membership if they lost this vote and yet committed to fulfilling the fixtures. <\/p>\n
The motion needs a simple majority to pass. The meeting will be held at the Aviva Stadium but is hybrid, allowing for remote, online access. Voting is likely to be done via a secret ballot as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Okay, tell me what\u2019s happening? The FAI\u2019s general assembly will convene at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday evening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13446,61,60,3410,59269,43,1842],"class_list":["post-537570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537570","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=537570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}