Republic of Ireland to proceed with Nations League match against Israel after squad vote

The Republic of Ireland will play their Nations League fixture against Israel on Sunday after a vote within the squad on whether to fulfil the fixture, Football Association of Ireland (FAI) CEO David Courell said on Saturday.

Ireland had postponed their pre-match news conference ahead of the game in Hungary, and their training session was also delayed.

This was to allow further talks to continue between Irish players, coaching staff and executives, after one player announced their intention to withdraw from the squad.

“This morning, a player expressed their discomfort with fulfilling this fixture to the head coach and indicated their intent to withdraw from the squad,” Courell told reporters.

“Ultimately, within the last maybe 90 minutes, we carried out a vote amongst the squad to establish their sentiment on fulfilling the fixtures, and it was a significant majority that was returned with the intention to continue.

“So based on that, the association took the decision on behalf of Irish football that this fixture would continue, as we have always intended to fulfil the fixtures.”

Ireland were due to hold the news conference on Saturday but shortly before the scheduled start at 10:15am local time (08:15 GMT), reporters were informed that this would now take place following the team’s training session at the stadium in Debrecen.

That was due to commence at 11am local time, but more than three hours later, the Ireland team were still inside their hotel.

Ahead of Ireland’s opening Group B3 game away to Kosovo, which they lost 1-0, captain Dara O’Shea told reporters that the players would meet on Friday to discuss a plan of action for the game against Israel.

FAI members voted in November for its board to request that UEFA suspend Israel from European competitions, but a motion in favour of proceeding with the fixtures was passed at an FAI EGM in July.

All of Israel’s home games are scheduled to take place in Debrecen, and Ireland moved their home fixture, set for October 4, to Serbia. That game will be played behind closed doors.

Tensions increased further when Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson used the word “genocide” in a media conference last weekend. The Israeli FA responded by calling his remarks stupid, ignorant and hypocritical.

Israel’s war on Gaza has been described as genocide by United Nations experts and rights organisations, an allegation Israel strongly rejects.