At least we can’t say the FAI were unprepared this time around. At the beginning of the week, at the start of an online meeting of their assembly, the association’s president Paul Cooke kicked off the meeting by raising the 25 per cent chance of Ireland drawing Israel in the Uefa Nations League. Cooke then reaffirmed the association’s position that while it opposed Israel playing on the international stage, it would nonetheless fulfil the fixtures should worst fears be realised. There were no dissenting voices.
Once Patrick Vieira drew out the Republic of Ireland’s name in the same group as Israel on Thursday, the FAI released a similar statement, knowing that a storm was coming now that the matter was no longer hypothetical. Since then, the FAI’s top brass have been keeping their heads down, shunning requests from journalists at the airport as they returned to Dublin.
Whether the leadership of the association can hold that position remains to be seen.
The draw was the one Ireland did not want
PAU BARRENA/AFP
The association’s leadership is desperate to remain sweet with Uefa in particular, given its high level of debt and Ireland’s somewhat perilous position as one of the host nations of the 2028 European Championships. They were railroaded to some degree by a well organised campaign to submit a motion to Uefa to ban Israel from its European club and international competitions, but this was ignored by the governing body of European football of which Israel is a member.
That campaign was led by Bohemians chief operating officer Daniel Lambert, a polished and skilful operator who also manages the as Gaeilge rappers Kneecap and has been linked with running for public office for Sinn Fein, though he said yesterday that he had no interest in a political career. Lambert wants a boycott of the Israel games, while also pointing out that the FAI have been put in an “unfair” position by Uefa over the seeming indifference in European football to what has been going on in Gaza and elsewhere. “We are moving so fast as a country on the basis of every decision being made on the basis of an economic threat. That doesn’t bring us to a nice place to live or a nice place for our children, it makes us totally subservient,” Lambert said.
Lambert added that he and other Palestinian supporters within the assembly will talk over the next few days, but clearly they are in the mood to try to stop the Israel tie being fulfilled. Lambert’s club, Bohemians, may have decisions of their own to make should they draw an Israeli club side in the forthcoming Uefa Conference League starting in July and the next few weeks should be crucial for setting the tone for the stance of the Irish clubs and the international side when it comes to Israel.
“I don’t think it is right that we would play an Israeli club,” Lambert said of a potential decision facing Bohs, “but I am only an employee and a member so it will be up to our membership to decide.”
The Israeli FA wants to reinforce the impression that with a ceasefire in place in Gaza, the situation is returning to normal. It is pressing for Uefa and Fifa to rule that Israel no longer has to play its club and international games in a neutral venue; Hungary in the case of Israel in recent games.
Should Israel’s wish prevail, that would mean a return to Israel for Ireland in late September for the first time since 2005, when about 3,000 Ireland fans made the trip for a 1-1 draw during Brian Kerr’s time in charge of the team. Israel put out a pointed message on X on Thursday that, “we’re hoping to welcome @Irelandfootball to a sea of Blue and White in a packed stadium. There’s nothing like Israeli hospitality when the stands are shaking!”
An olive branch? At the time of going to press there was no “like” or “retweet” from the official FAI account.
The return leg in Dublin is then scheduled for early October, with Lambert predicting that there could be as many protestors outside the ground as there would be supporters in it, should the match go ahead in the capital. Senior Garda sources seem to be of the opinion that it shouldn’t, not in Ireland anyway and the FAI will listen closely to their recommendations, though senior sources said yesterday that talks have yet to take place.
Israel have been playing their home games in Hungary
ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP
From a Uefa point of view the optics around moving the tie to a neutral venue such as Budapest are not good, particularly with the 2028 European Championships looming. Should Israel qualify, they could be coming to Dublin for their matches and Uefa will be looking for evidence that the authorities in Dublin can handle such a scenario.
Senior FAI officials are privately warning that boycotting the game could have even more serious repercussions for Ireland. Israel would almost certainly look for heavy sanctions in such a scenario, which could amount to a heavy fine and or Ireland getting kicked out of international competitions. Losing the right to jointly host the next Euros, where Dublin will have six or seven games, would also be a possibility.
Nobody needs long memories to recall how Dublin lost the 2020 Euros because of Covid restrictions and the rest of Europe didn’t miss a heartbeat. The financial loss to the association would be huge as would the loss of prestige within Uefa which the FAI has been trying to rebuild since the international “football family” was part of a bailout of the bankrupt association in 2020.
The then sports minister, Shane Ross, demanded more power and representation for supporters and the players union within the association as part of the price the FAI needed to pay for the rescue and it is that constituency which may bare its teeth now to have the Israel game banned.
In a country where there is widespread sympathy for the Palestinian cause and anger at Israel over the war in Gaza, it will be seen as a battle between the pragmatists and the principled. It may not necessarily help the former that the Taoiseach Micheal Martin has come down on the side of the games being played. Either way, the chances of seeing the Israel national team play in Ireland this year look slim, no matter what the fixture list says.