Conflicts at Ireland-Israel game: Football only offside

I rland's footballers have been let down - by their government, by their association and by the international governing body Fifa. They are young men whose everyday lives are organized by their clubs. You don't have to worry about your diet, shopping or opening a bank account.

But now they were about to make a far-reaching political decision while the whole world was watching them with interest. In the end, they decided against boycotting the two soccer games in the Nations League competition against Israel.

It was a secret vote, but of course the result was leaked and the players have to live with that. Only substitute keeper Gavin Bazunu decided to stay away from the games. For this, he was insulted on social media as an “Israel hater” by people who obviously did not read his statement, which was by no means hateful.

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The Irish kept their heads bowed during the Israeli anthem both in the 3-0 win in Debrecen, Hungary, eight days ago and in the "home" game, which was moved to Bačka Topola, Serbia, for security reasons and ended in a draw yesterday. Yesterday both teams wore black armbands - the Irish in memory of “all those who lost their lives in this conflict”, the Israelis in memory of the victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7th.

The press conference on Saturday ended in scandal. An Israeli journalist accused Ireland's Icelandic coach Heimir Hallgrímsson of supporting the attempted attack on the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv: "The people who support you - their ideology is based on murder," she said.

Her colleague accused the Irish players of racism by distorting the facts: it was the Israeli fans who insulted Ireland's black players in Debrecen and chanted "IDF". UEFA excluded the two Israeli journalists from the post-match press conference.

Even before the first game, Hallgrímsson had to take a stand on Hamas and his decision to work in Qatar from 2018 to 2021, as well as Ireland's game against Nazi Germany in 1936. He had initially said that they were not playing with genocide, but against genocide, but apologized for this several times, and the apology was accepted by the Israeli side.

But the question of whether it is genocide or not is irrelevant to the debate about the game of football. Israel has no place in the Nations League or any other international competition for other reasons. The fact is that at least six clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories play in Israeli leagues.

This not only violates international law, but also FIFA's statutes. Article 64.2 of these statutes states: “Member associations and their clubs may not play on their territory without the consent of another member association.”

If even FIFA doesn't enforce its own rules, what chance do footballers have? The tension between the teams was clearly noticeable in every duel. An Israeli player is said to have spat on an Irish official during half-time and the matter is being investigated by UEFA.

In the end everyone was happy that it was over. Two weeks of noisy and heated debates, hostile press conferences and angry statements from government politicians in both countries ended in the bizarre silence of a small Serbian town, where the game took place without spectators in an empty stadium.

Hallgrímsson called on UEFA to keep his team away from Israel in future draws after the two matches, he said, “were a tough test for all of us”.