Irish football divided again as Nations League showdowns with Israel loom

Sept 26 - Born of a split in 1921 when the island was partitioned, the Football Association of Ireland has again found itself divided ahead of their two Nations League clashes with Israel, with the players disagreeing over whether to boycott the first game on Sunday and goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrawing from the squad.

After hours of fraught meetings among the players and occasionally involving coaches and officials, FAI chief executive officer David Courell told a press conference that had been delayed by several hours that a "significant majority" of the squad had agreed to play Sunday's game in Debrecen, Hungary, but it was far from a unanimous decision.

The handful of Irish journalists present peppered Courell and head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson with questions, asking how it came to be that such heated discussions were still taking place a day before the game.

“Obviously, this affects all of them - nobody is comfortable at the moment, but it’s about limiting the damage both personally and also for Irish football. We need to find some solution on it," Hallgrimsson told reporters.

"There’s nothing that we can do, there’s no action that we can do that everybody will agree to, so we need to find the solution and that will limit the damage for us as a group, for Ireland as a nation and for the Association, the future of football in Ireland.”

Ireland is one of Europe's most outspoken critics of Israel's war in Gaza, and Irish fans and politicians had called on the team to boycott the Nations League B, Group 3 games, but the nation's governing body said it would go ahead with the games.

The decision to play is at odds with a motion passed by the FAI's members last November calling on Israel to be banned from European competition due to a number of breaches of UEFA regulations.

Sunday's clash in Hungary is Israel's home game in the Nations League group and no Irish fans will be present. Security concerns mean that the game which should have taken place in Dublin on October 4 has been moved to the Serbian town of Backa Topola, where it will be played behind closed doors.

BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN

Led by Irish fans and political and sporting figures, there has been a strong campaign to boycott the games and Saturday's announcement that the players had voted to play against Israel was met with an immediate backlash against the governing body.

“There is widespread public revulsion in Ireland at the prospect of our national team lining up against an Israeli side as its government carries out a genocide in Gaza and facilitates ethnic cleansing in the West Bank," Social Democrats parliamentarian Daniel Ennis, a former League of Ireland footballer with Bohemian FC, Shelbourne FC and Bray Wanderers, said in a statement.

“But it is not the players’ failure – it is a failure of the Irish Government, the FAI and UEFA to do the right thing."

Israel has denied committing genocide and said on Saturday that football and politics should be kept apart.

The group Irish Sport for Palestine was scathing about the decision to play Sunday's game.

"Today is a colossal failure by the FAI. They have further exposed their lack of leadership and total incompetency," the group said in a statement.

At the press conference, Courell revealed that a number of protest measures would be taken, such as an absence of handshakes between the players and no exchange of the customary pennant before the game.

He said the Irish players would wear black armbands in honour of all the victims of the conflict while donating their match fees to charity. REUTERS