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Sport

Ireland to play Israel after squad vote ends boycott threat

The Republic of Ireland will play Sunday's Nations League fixture against Israel after a player vote returned a significant majority in favour of fulfilling it, FAI chief executive David Courell has confirmed.

By Tom Ellery · · 2 min read

The Republic of Ireland will play their UEFA Nations League fixture against Israel on Sunday after a vote within the squad returned a significant majority in favour of fulfilling it, Football Association of Ireland chief executive David Courell said on Saturday.

Ireland had postponed their pre-match press conference and delayed their training session in Debrecen, Hungary, to allow further talks between the players, coaching staff and executives after one player announced their intention to withdraw from the squad.

“This morning, a player expressed their discomfort with fulfilling this fixture to the head coach and indicated their intent to withdraw from the squad,” Courell told reporters. “Within the last maybe 90 minutes, we carried out a vote amongst the squad to establish their sentiment on fulfilling the fixtures and it was a significant majority that was returned with the intention to continue.”

“Based on that, the association took the decision on behalf of Irish football that this fixture would continue as we have always intended to fulfill the fixtures.”

The press conference had been due at 10:15 a.m. local time (0815 GMT) but reporters were told it would follow the training session at the stadium in Debrecen, which was itself postponed. Over three hours after the scheduled start of training, the Ireland team were still inside their hotel.

The tension follows a politically charged build-up. Ireland lost their opening Group B3 game away to Kosovo 1-0, and captain Dara O’Shea said the players would meet on Friday to discuss a plan of action for the Israel game. FAI members voted in November for its board to request that UEFA suspend Israel from European competitions, though a motion in favour of proceeding with the fixtures was passed at an FAI EGM in July.

All of Israel’s home games are being played in Debrecen, while Ireland moved their home fixture, set for October 4, to Serbia, where it will be played behind closed doors. Tensions increased further when Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson used the word “genocide” in a press conference last weekend; the Israeli FA called his remarks stupid, ignorant and hypocritical. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has been described as genocide by UN experts and rights organisations, an allegation Israel strongly rejects.

Sources

More on this topic: all Sport stories

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