Backup goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu informed the Football Association of Ireland that he did not want to play against Israel, the Irish Independent reported Saturday. Ireland\u2019s training session and pre-match press conference were delayed as the squad discussed its position.<\/p>\n
The teams were scheduled to meet Sunday in Debrecen, Hungary, and again on October 4 in Ba\u010dka Topola, Serbia. The return fixture, designated as Ireland\u2019s home game, was moved overseas after the FAI cited operational difficulties in staging it in Ireland, and was scheduled to take place behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
The fixtures drew calls for a boycott over Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza. Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson added to the controversy when he said: \u201cWe\u2019re not playing with genocide, we\u2019re playing against genocide. So, we\u2019re playing against Israel. We\u2019re not playing with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israel Football Association responded by accusing Hallgrimsson of \u201cstupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy.\u201d In a post on X, it said: \u201cWe\u2019re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we\u2019re playing against the coach who embodies them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel and Northern Ireland historic context<\/p>\n
FAI members voted in November 2025 to request Israel\u2019s suspension from UEFA competitions over alleged breaches of the organization\u2019s statutes. The association nevertheless committed to fulfilling the Nations League fixtures, citing the risk of forfeiting the matches and facing further disciplinary measures, including possible disqualification.<\/p>\n
The FAI also said UEFA rejected its request to keep Ireland and Israel apart in future competition draws. European soccer\u2019s governing body said such decisions were assessed case by case, primarily on security grounds.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials and Irish Jewish leaders warned of growing hostility toward Israel and rising antisemitism in Ireland following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing Gaza war. <\/p>\n
Alan Shatter says the atmosphere is toxic and unsafe for the Jewish community in Ireland<\/p>\n
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland received 143 reports of antisemitic incidents between July 2025 and January 2026, including verbal abuse, threats and vandalism. Israel announced the closure of its Dublin embassy in December 2024, citing what it called the Irish government\u2019s \u201cextreme anti-Israel policies,\u201d an accusation Dublin rejected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Backup goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu informed the Football Association of Ireland that he did not want to play against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-628148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628148","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=628148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}