{"id":430119,"date":"2026-05-07T14:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/430119\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:29:14","slug":"irish-celebrities-footballers-urge-boycott-of-israel-match-over-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/430119\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish celebrities, footballers urge boycott of Israel match over Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leading Irish footballers have joined with celebrities in a campaign urging the Republic of Ireland to boycott a UEFA Nations League match against Israel later this year.<\/p>\n

An open letter sent to the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) from campaign group Irish Sport for Palestine accuses Israel of engaging in “genocide” in the war in Gaza and of breaching UEFA and FIFA<\/a> statutes by allowing teams to play on Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, 93% of FAI members voted for its leadership to press UEFA to suspend Israel under those statutes, a mandate campaigners say the Irish governing body should ‘respect and represent’.<\/p>\n

Israel has denied that its forces have committed genocide during the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Reuters has contacted the FAI and the Israel Football Association (IFA) for comment.<\/p>\n

\"DEMONSTRATORSDEMONSTRATORS HOLD banners in support of Palestinians during a protest in relation to the ceasefire in Gaza, in Dublin, Ireland, February 21, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/CLODAGH KILCOYNE)<\/p>\n

The letter, entitled “Stop the Game”, was signed by League of Ireland players, former men’s coach Brian Kerr, and twice women’s player of the year Louise Quinn.<\/p>\n

Irish rock band Fontaines DC, hip-hop trio Kneecap<\/a>, and singer-songwriter Christy Moore were among the other signatories, along with Oscar-nominated actor Stephen Rea.<\/p>\n

Ireland are set to host Israel at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on October 4, while a September 27 fixture designated as an Israeli home match is expected to be staged at a neutral venue.<\/p>\n

The letter includes a statement from Shamrock Rovers captain and Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland chair Roberto Lopes.<\/p>\n

“We can’t ignore the humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine; the sheer loss of life there has to take precedence over any sporting consideration,” said Dublin-born Lopes, who is set to play at the World Cup for Cape Verde in June.<\/p>\n

“Ireland has an opportunity here to lead and do what others won’t.”<\/p>\n

Israel has played in UEFA competitions since the early 1980s after being excluded from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) competitions in the 1970s when several countries refused to play against them.<\/p>\n

Ireland PM calls for planned matches with Israel to proceed<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the two matches against Israel should go ahead.<\/p>\n

“We have been critics and have opposed very strongly Israeli government policy within Gaza<\/a> in particular. We condemned the Hamas attack on Israel which was absolutely horrific,” the Taoiseach told the Irish Times.<\/p>\n

“I think sport is an area that can be challenging when it crosses into the realm of politics.”<\/p>\n

In February, FAI Chief Executive David Courell said the national team had no choice but to fulfill its obligations or risk harming the long-term sporting interests of Irish football, including potential disqualification from future competitions.<\/p>\n

A poll by the Irish Football Supporters Partnership found 76% of respondents opposed the fixture being played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leading Irish footballers have joined with celebrities in a campaign urging the Republic of Ireland to boycott a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4118,50,42,12110,43,48,40,38,41,39,28724],"class_list":["post-430119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-football","tag-gaza","tag-headlines","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}