Irish footballers vote to play against Israel despite protests

After coming close to a boycott, Ireland's footballers finally decided. The vote within the Irish football selection saw those in favor of playing the Nations League matches against Israel, scheduled for tomorrow and next Sunday, prevail. A painful decision, taken by majority, which would also have resulted in sanctions from UEFA against the Irish Football Federation in the event that the matches were not played. "We held a vote among the players to understand their position. The majority voted to play. Based on this, the association has decided, on behalf of Irish football, to play them, as we intended from the beginning," said Irish Football Association president David Courell. "What makes us happy today is that football won. Those who certainly lost today are those who wanted to intimidate, divide and turn the football pitch into a political arena," the Israel Football Federation responded in a statement.

The scheduled matches

The first meeting, Israel-Ireland, is scheduled for tomorrow, which will be held in Hungary, on the neutral site of Debrecen due to the situation in the Middle East. The same will also apply to the return leg, which will be played on 4 October at Backa Topola, Serbia, due to concerns over possible security problems in Ireland. In fact, there is strong support for the Palestinian cause in the country and when the Nations League draw put the two national teams in the same group, prominent Irish personalities, including several athletes, groups of fans and activists, protested and proposed a boycott. Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said in a press conference that a player had decided to withdraw from the team for the match against Israel. A position that caused the postponement of the press conference itself and then the internal vote on whether or not to dispute the match. "No one feels comfortable playing these matches for many reasons," declared Hallgrimsson, who was among the first to express his thoughts on the matter, saying a week ago that the national team would "play not with Israel, but against Israel and against the genocide" thus causing heated protests from the Israeli federation.

How the Irish national team will take the field

Even if the match will be played, the players have chosen to set a series of other limits, announced by Courell himself: they will not participate in any press conference tomorrow, nor for the match against Austria in Dublin on October 1st nor for the match in Serbia. Furthermore, tomorrow they will wear black armbands "in memory of all the lives lost in the conflict" and, finally, there will be no handshakes or exchange of pennants with the Israeli players before kick-off.

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