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

you are exaggerating. He’s talking in terms of the FAI making a unilateral decision on their own to simply not fulfil the fixture. That’s not going to happen and no one expects that. Any number of things could happen, the home match played on neutral ground, restricted or no fans, major demonstrations accommodated or depending on circumstances and/or events between now and the Autumn the game may not go ahead.

The FAI on their own bat will not be taking a unilateral decision to not play the fixtures. We can agree on that. You can stop exaggerating and catastrophising on behalf of a few staffers at the FAI now. You really have over egged that one.

I’m talking about a scenario where more political pressure is put on UEFA to apply their own regulations and do the right thing here. It’s hardly a “mysterious” scenario given that football representatives across Ireland voted overwhelmingly to present a motion to UEFA to apply their regulations and ban Israel. With Ireland being drawn to actually face Israel the issue will resurface and the debate will intensify.

For someone who keeps banging on about the staff at the FAI etc., you seem to be at odds with the general soccer community in Ireland on this matter with your “virtue signalling” jibes against anyone expressing opposition against the genocidal murderous Israeli government.

and not 33,000 Iranians killed by their own government

This didn't happen and you know it. You've been corrected numerous times already.

Stop lying about this.

Of all the nonsense posted in the thread, this is the most ridiculous. You think UEFA want to go to the CAS to defend its blatant breaking of its own rules?? No team that boycotts Israel will face any consequences because of this.

RTÉ/Virgin Media pay for the rights to Nations League games. They last paid €1.8m for the 2022 cycle. What would it cost the FAI?? What mystery 100m deal are you talking about??

The farmers/truck drivers have set the template. If israel arrive here, the FAI should do everything they need to do to “play” the game and the city should be shut down, roads blocked, infrastructure shut down. See how brave the israeli players are when they’ve to walk through hostile streets to the stadium.

We need to get them “virtue signalling” farmers and truck drivers out leading the van and causing havoc on the streets around Lansdowne Road when this Israel fixture comes around.

What rules have been broken? I've an interest in sports law, so would be genuinely intetested in hearing about it.

Many posters seem to be citing that their are teams in Palestinian areas playing in Israeli leagues. Can you point to the specific rule in the FIFA/UEFA statutes that is alleged to have been broken? Any reason why the Palestinian FA has not made a complaint?

Just to point out that in many sports, including soccer, there are many instances where teams play in leagues outside their own countries. Indeed, Ireland is probably the place in the world where this is most common. A large number of our sports operate leagues on an all-island basis, thus teams the wider sporting world considers to be UK based teams, play in Irish leagues. Even the LOI has a N.I. based team in its top division.

There's a few what if's in what you're saying yourself there.

I think political pressure can be brought to bear on UEFA to do their duty in this matter. I don't think UEFA will be suspending Ireland, let's try and find out if they actually will actually suspend Ireland instead of doing what they should be doing according to their own regulations which is ban Israel. I think with the right kind of brinkmanship this fixture can be used as a political football to pressure UEFA to apply their own regulations.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't work but this fixture will (correctly) be used literally as a political football to pile pressure on UEFA and to highlight the cowardice in the international communities failure to stand up to the current murderous Israeli regime.