Irish soccer team would ‘miss out’ if Israel matches were boycotted – Harris
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association
Ireland’s soccer team would be “losing out” if matches against Israel were boycotted, the Tánaiste has said.
The Republic of Ireland were drawn this week in a group with Israel as part of the Uefa Nations League, prompting questions about whether the matches would be boycotted or pose security questions if they were played in Ireland.
The two teams are due to play each other in the autumn: the away leg on September 27th and the home fixture on October 4th.
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said Ireland would fulfil the Israel fixtures, despite the FAI General Assembly voting overwhelmingly in favour of a motion mandating the governing body to call for Israel to be suspended from European competitions.
The FAI then wrote to Uefa, European football’s governing body, calling for Israel to be banned from its competitions.
Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said last year he did not understand why Israel had not been banned from football, while former Ireland manager Brian Kerr said the FAI needed to “show a real bit of balls and refuse to play Israel”.
Israel’s Football Association has said it was “hoping to welcome” the Ireland side to “a sea of blue and white in a packed stadium” in Israel, despite the fact they have been playing their home games at neutral venues in countries such as Hungary.
On Saturday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Ireland should not play the matches and Israel should be “given the red card”.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said: “We have to think this thing through here.
“We all share, I think, a general disgust at the actions in the Middle East and the genocidal situation in Gaza, of that there’s no doubt, and we’ve been strong and clear on that as a country and as a government,” he told RTÉ Radio.
“We have to recognise, though, when it comes to soccer, and when it comes to the Irish soccer team, not doing anything that would actually disadvantage the team and wouldn’t have any effect at all on Israel.
“Our FAI, the people who run football in Ireland, made their views clear in relation to Israel’s participation.
“Uefa, the governing body, made their decision. The actual country that would end up getting the red card here would be Ireland.
“At a time when grassroot clubs right around the country are beginning to cheer on the soccer team, with the World Cup playoffs coming, I don’t want to see anything that distracts or indeed puts pressure. I’ve been hearing lots about individual players should do this, that or the other – I don’t want to be saying anything or doing anything that applies pressure to the men who put on the green jersey and represent our country with pride.
“We all want to get behind them, and we have major games coming up in terms of the World Cup playoff, so our views on Israel are very clear in terms of their actions in Gaza, but we also need to be able to decouple that from sport and decisions that are made by sporting bodies.
“I just think in this situation, it’s actually the Irish soccer team that would be losing out and the Irish soccer team that would be missing out.
“I think we have to have that sort of perspective in relation to this, and we need to get behind our Irish soccer team.”
