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

I dont know enough about the individual circumstances of those clubs to answer whether I think they should be suspended.

Its not true that clubs must only play in their own Federations leagues - Derry City in the LOI is a good example of one of the exceptions

If a case was taken, Id imagine the following would be considered:

- which National Federations will admit them to their leagues. FIFA is all about people playing football and so wont allow a club to be without a league.

• Whether there is an agreement between the respective federations.
• The locations of the clubs
• The situation on the ground.
• FiFAs rules on the matter.

-

All this time and you are starting to get it.

Of course not playing Israel is symbolic. Half the pagentry of international football is symbolic.

How can you say symbolic gestures can't be meaningful or "impact Israel"? That is what all peaceful boycotts, all peaceful protests are. Sporting boycotts massively affected apartheid SA, along with other pressure. Was that wrong?

Symbolism is massive in international football and by partaking in it, it legitimizes a country.

Why do countries care about hosting World Cups and international tournaments? It is symbolic of legitimacy and prestige. Why are there national anthems before every game, flags and etc in the first place?

By that logic we'd never protest, never boycott, never sanction and never speak out about anything unless it single-handedly fixed the entire problem. That's not how pressure works.

As well you know ;)

Who votes in the israeli government? Its clear that alot of posters here would not in the past have supported a ban on apartheid South Africa from international events if the SA have tried to sportswash their image by being all inclusive in their sports organisations while representing a deeply segregated society. It really is pretending to stand for something while standing up for nothing.

In the end of the day the way global sport is structured right now isnt giving you the outcome you want. That's the big problem you have.

I think you"re failing to.understand the difference between sporting politics and government politics.

The SA bans were sporting bans. There were no governments involved. Each sport made their own decisions within their own International Federations. And there wasnt uniformity of approsch - some (regrettably) International Federations continued to include SA e.g. the FIA (motor racing). Some only banned teams, but allowed individuals compete, some had blanket bans for all.

Oh jaysus so now your argument is that people aren't doing enough to stop the genocide you can't condemn?

You must be all for the OTB, divest and sanction movements, etc. Never heard you say that mind you, outside of them all just being virtue signallers. Youre arguments are all over the place.

I personally, don't hold all Israelis accountable, maybe I'm in the minority. Id give anyone I met the time of day same as anyone. I support OTB against the pshychos stealing land and ethnically cleansing the west bank though.

Obviously though, what you are missing is that symbolic protest and pressuring governments aren't one or the other, you can do one, some or all. All these things are involved in peaceful protests and always have been, including the recent ones in Ireland.

And how on earth can you argue symbolism isn't meaningful? That is exactly what symbolism is. All peaceful protests rely on it.

The timeline of events were…

Feb 24th - Russia invades the Ukraine.

Feb 26th - The Polish FA announces that they won't play Russia in the World Cup playoff's in March.

Feb 26th - The Swedish FA say that they won't play against Russia as they or the Czechs were to face them in the event of a Polish defeat.

Feb 27th - The Czech FA say that they also will refuse to play against Russia.

Feb 28th - UEFA and FIFA, put in an awkward position, only then decide to ban the Russian FA from competition.

US Soccer declared that they refused to play against Russia in an announcement that came, literally hours before the UEFA/FIFA announcement to ban Russia.

The footballing organisations were put in a situation where they could take action against one European FA or three, so they chose one under the guise of UEFA and FIFA's reasoning was that it "…reflects its commitment to take a stand against violence and aggression".

Of course when it comes to Israel's "violence and aggression", there's a completely different standard being applied, despite the fact that Israel A. Is an apartheid state that routinely steals other people's land and repopulates it with their own, B. There's a credible case currently at play in Europe that they have engaged in genocidal warfare against the people of Gaza, C. Have started an illegal war against Iran and are currently prosecuting illegal activities such as ethnic cleansing and the forced expulsion of civilians in The Lebanon.

All of which should be grounds for banning them if UEFA and FIFA really were acting to take "a stand against violence and aggression".

Exacty…so let's stop whingeing and play the match!!!

It had nothing to do with Sweden or Poland etc.

Both UEFA and FIFA were put in a position where they had no choice but to ban Russia from competition by Poland kicking of a series of events with refusal to play them two days after the invasion of the Ukraine.

You can say different all you want and use your crystal ball to say it would have happened anyway.

But guess what…nobody cares, Mr. "I don't care". 😉