Safety concerns over Ireland-Israel games raised by trade union
SIPTU members employed by the FAI have expressed "serious safety concerns" about Ireland's planned Nations League games with Israel, and have called on the football's national football governing body to withdraw from the fixtures.
Ireland were yesterday drawn in the same group as Israel for the upcoming Nations League campaign. Fixture details announced today show that Heimir Hallgrímsson's men are due to play Israel away on Sunday, September 27, and at home on Sunday, October 4.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, Greg Ennis, said: "A match between Ireland and Israel is not only a serious political and moral issue but also has safety implications for workers and players which the FAI must consider.
"Our members believe that such a concern, and the duty of care the FAI must show for its staff, must also rule out this fixture.
"This is simply a call for consistency by the sporting body, which has already called for the exclusion of Israeli teams from international competition because of that State’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people," Mr Ennis said.
"It is unacceptable that the organisation would now demand its employees and players engage with their Israeli counterparts in fixtures that the FAI, and we believe the vast majority of Irish people, believe should not be taking place.
"Our members do not want to be part of a rank hypocrisy in world football which sees Russian teams banned due to their country’s illegal war in Ukraine, while another state that is perpetrating a legally defined genocide should be allowed to sport-wash its reputation at our expense.
"It is up to the governing association to consider these issues and not place players and staff in a situation where their safety and future reputations are in jeopardy," he concluded.
In a statement yesterday, the FAI said it intended to fulfil the fixtures with Israel, noting that "if an association refuses to play a match then that fixture will be forfeited and further disciplinary measures may follow – including potential disqualification from the competition".