Ireland vs Israel - To play or not to play, that is the question Read OP for Mod Warning

And when the FAI lose upwards of €10m in income (no ticket sales, loss of sponsorship, loss of TV rights money) and cannot pay their employees, what then? Not to mention future revenue being jeopardised if UEFA hand out further punishments.

Have all those calling for a boycott surrendered their tablets phones laptops etc because they in all likelihood contain tachnology/apps developed in Israel? If not why not? Why the hypocrisy?

Have all those calling for a boycott checked their own personal life for insurance providers to see what links they have to Israel, or stopped going to Tesco, supervalu etc because they stock food items which will have links to Israel?

Its easy to shout from the sidelines when you are not the one responsible for an entire sporting organisations financial well being, and hundreds of employees getting paid. That is the reality.

The reality is the FAI boycott the games, the losers are the FAI and their employees. There number 1 obligation is to their employees, not to anyone else.

Russia have been banned for 4 years, from sports across the board.

Did that make Putin rethink his strategy?

Did that bring an end to hostilities on the Eastern Ukraine border?

The FAI have no choice here realistically because playing matches generates income to pay people who have bills, rent, mortgages to pay, need to put food on the table etc.

We saw a protest at Croke Park at the weekend over Allianz. Where was the outrage when AIG sponsored the Dublin teams?

Except it wouldn't "call significant attention to the plight of the people suffering at the hands of that state." It would just make Ireland look like a laughing stock.

What i believe, care about or dont care about isnt going to make a blind bit of difference to the power players in the world. In this case trump, Netanyahu etc.

The reality is why, in two and a half years has no other football association or club taken a stand against Israel?

Russia was banned, yet the war carries on.

Whether a football match involving Ireland and Israel goes ahead, or not, is not going to change anything in Israel. It wont register on their radar at all. I think there is more then an element of over inflated sense of self importance going on in this country which is totally misplaced. We are a tiny dot, a spec, on the international landscape.

The FAI have already pledged to do something to support a charity working in Palestine around the home game, that alone will do far more good then an Ultimately meaningless boycott of a game ever will. Because if the games are boycotted, the world will move on and nobody will really give a **** about it. And the FAI will be left to pick up the pieces of what will prove to have been a meaningless exercise and IMO nobody else will follow the FAIs lead.

Given the below from January I believe, I think it's safe to say that employees of the FAI would have bigger concerns closer to home that are heavily dependent on getting paid and keeping their jobs.

Add a 4th option

Play the game but encourage non-mass protest such as booing the anthem, Palestinian flags, Kneecap for a halftime show, show adds on our billboards for the red cross and other aid organisations in Gaza etc etc

Remember this game is being broadcast worldwide, and especially to the numerous soccer fans in Israel.

Not playing the game makes them a pariah and doesn't allow this level of protest

You will never look a laughing stock when doing the right thing. Either as an individual, or as a country.

Supporting Palestinians is not "the right thing".

That will be revealed in time.

A lot of Irish people still haven't figured that out.

Why would I change the word Palestinians to Jews and pretend it's 1942 ?

The Jews were not trying to eradicate any state in 1942

Its pretty simple. Play the game

If people dont want to attend, so be it.

If certain players don't want to play, so be it.

But please, people have the right to protest, but not get into other people face about it.

Last week at the convention centre was a mess, i was walking by on way home and a protester jump in my way, ranting at it me and I had nothing to do with anything going on. Garda pulled him away.