{"id":638305,"date":"2026-09-28T07:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/638305\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T07:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:54:13","slug":"fai-president-paul-cooke-defends-handling-of-israel-v-ireland-game-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/638305\/","title":{"rendered":"FAI president Paul Cooke defends handling of Israel v Ireland game \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI<\/a>) president Paul Cooke has defended the handling of the build-up to the Nations League clash with Israel in Hungary, saying the week \u201cwent as well as could be expected in the face of unprecedented coverage\u201d. <\/p>\n

Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson admitted after Ireland\u2019s 3-0 win<\/a> in Debrecen that he believed at one point yesterday that the game would not go ahead, and was visibly emotional as he described the build-up as the most difficult experience of his career. <\/p>\n

Gavin Bazunu\u2019s withdrawal<\/a> from the Israel matches on Saturday morning led the Irish players to reconsider their own positions on fulfilling the fixtures, with players eventually voting among themselves on whether to proceed with the match. The FAI said the players voted with a \u201csignificant majority\u201d to fulfil the game, but have declined to specify the result of the vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve handled the week quite well,\u201d said Cooke. \u201cI think, first of all, before we even get into that, I think if you look at the courage, the performance, the way they conducted themselves, everybody that was here tonight, those 20-odd players, they\u2019ve as a nation, a country, as a football organisation, we should be so proud of them in the face of the difficulties that they encountered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the week went as well as could be expected in the face of, I would say, unprecedented coverage and the way some people conducted themselves. And I\u2019m not referring to anybody in the camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to whom he referred, Cooke rounded on the media. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am referring to the way some of you have behaved in some respects,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pressure, the way some stories have been chased. I\u2019ve worked in media for 35 years. I thought journalists were meant to be balanced and reflect two sides of an opinion. I haven\u2019t seen that. That\u2019s just my personal gripe.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cooke also took issue with what he saw as insufficient coverage given to the reasons why the FAI was fulfilling the games, saying it proceeded with the matches to safeguard the future financial interests of Irish football. He also pointed to the result of an EGM vote earlier this year, at which delegates passed a motion committing the FAI to fulfilling all Nations League games by a 68 per cent majority, saying the decision had been democratically endorsed by the FAI\u2019s members. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland fulfil fixture against Israel, but pressure to cancel return game will not let upOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Cooke said at no point did he personally feel the Israel games should not be played, pointing to the unknowns around what Uefa\u2019s potential sanctions would be in the event of a boycott. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are, but I don\u2019t know what they are,\u201d said Cooke of the unknown sanctions. \u201cBut equally, the other sanctions are serious. Let\u2019s not forget that. Two 3-0 defeats. They are serious as well. And the consequences of going down to League C. But equally, as I said, I haven\u2019t heard anybody say that this decision was taken by the football community, which is what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be a thought process from a lot of people in the country that the decision isn\u2019t just about what should be good for football.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Allegation of racism by Israel fans towards Ireland\u2019s Adam Idah will not be investigatedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In illustrating the potential impacts of unknown sanctions, Cooke pointed to Southampton\u2019s punishment in the Spygate controversy of last season, which saw them kicked out of the Championship play-offs. <\/p>\n

Cooke also said he did not give an opinion to the players during yesterday\u2019s long meeting as to whether the game should be played, and that the decision to proceed with the game was left up to the players\u2019 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) president Paul Cooke has defended the handling of the build-up to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13446,4700,61,60,266856,3410,1842,112,30918],"class_list":["post-638305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-israel","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638305","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=638305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}