{"id":574145,"date":"2026-07-29T17:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574145\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:52:09","slug":"group-protesting-israel-vs-ireland-soccer-match-occupies-department-of-sport-offices-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574145\/","title":{"rendered":"Group protesting Israel vs Ireland soccer match occupies Department of Sport offices \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group protesting Ireland\u2019s Nations League<\/a> soccer match against Israel<\/a> in the autumn occupied the the Department of Sport<\/a> offices on Wednesday before being removed by garda\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The #StoptheGame group entered the reception of the department and asked to speak with officials before being removed less than two hours later.<\/p>\n

Dublin city councillor Ciaran Perry, a member of the campaign, said the reaction to the protest was \u201cabsolutely disgraceful\u201d and \u201ctotally unnecessary\u201d. He said the actions would escalate until the fixture was cancelled. The \u201cnext steps\u201d will be highlighted at a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A website for the campaign is due to be created to \u201coutline further plans\u201d for action targeting the Government and the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI). <\/p>\n

The FAI voted to move the away fixture against Israel to Debrecen, Hungary<\/a>, on September 27th. Last month it confirmed the relocation of the home fixture<\/a> against Israel on October 4th from Dublin to Ba\u010dka Topola in Serbia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perry said the relocation was not enough, adding that \u201cwe don\u2019t want the Irish team to play Israel anywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shane Moore, a spokesman for the campaign, said: \u201cIrish taxpayer money should not be supporting these games. We don\u2019t want these games to go ahead. We do not want sportswashing of genocide by any means.\u201d <\/p>\n

A statement from the Department of Sport said garda\u00ed<\/a> were requested \u201cin accordance with normal protocols\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that National Governing Bodies of sport, such as the FAI, are independent, autonomous bodies responsible for the governance of their own sports, including the organisation of sporting fixtures, whether in domestic or international competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department said the Government and Sport Ireland had no role in the organisation of such fixtures.<\/p>\n

However, Moore said: \u201cWhen we talk about football not being political, that\u2019s absolutely in no way correct. It\u2019s very much political, and you can see that in the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Israel, in a similar fashion to the exclusion of Russia from many international sporting organisations, should be dismissed from all sporting bodies.<\/p>\n

A Garda statement said no arrests were made after a number of individuals who had entered the premises at Leeson Lane were dispersed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na facilitates peaceful protest while protecting the rights of individuals to travel freely and commercial organisations to conduct business,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny Garda activity in relation to evolving events involves a graduated policing response taking into account relevant legislation and public safety, with enforcement as a last resort.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group protesting Ireland\u2019s Nations League soccer match against Israel in the autumn occupied the the Department of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,13446,3409,1840,61,60,3410,43,1842,63511,96346],"class_list":["post-574145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hungary","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-serbia","tag-sport-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574145","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=574145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}