SIPTU has been clear and consistent in its position these UEFA Nations League fixtures against Israel cannot go ahead. In today’s Sunday Read, I am calling on the Government to finally show the leadership the Irish people deserve and demand that the FAI withdraw from these games immediately.
As a key funder of the Football Association of Ireland, the Government has a responsibility that goes far beyond issuing cautious statements and then stepping aside.
What we have witnessed instead is a failure of nerve, a bottle job, a decision to wash their hands of a deeply damaging FAI position, one that will have long-lasting consequences for players, supporters, and grassroots football across this island.
That is not leadership. That is abdication.
This Government has rightly recognised the State of Palestine. That recognition was not a gesture, it was a declaration of values, a statement about what Ireland stands for in the community of nations.
You cannot, on one hand, formally acknowledge a people’s right to statehood and, on the other, send the Boys in Green to play games that legitimise the very state engaged in the ongoing genocide of that people and the continued illegal seizure of their land.
The contradiction is not subtle. It is glaring and leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the vast majority of football fans.
Ireland has done this before. In 1999, the Republic of Ireland versus Yugoslavia Euro 2000 qualifying match was cancelled after the Irish Government refused to grant visas to the Yugoslav squad, a powerful and principled stand taken in direct protest at Yugoslavia’s military actions and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Kosovo. The Government of the day did not hesitate. So we must ask plainly, what is so different about Israel today, or Russia for that matter, given their ongoing genocide and illegal invasion respectively? The principle was right then. It is no less right now.
We will not place Irish players in a position where they are required to shake the hands of ex-IDF soldiers beneath the Israeli flag. That is not a demand we can make of any worker, and our players are workers, represented, valued, and deserving of our protection. SIPTU stands with them.
The FAI’s decision, irrespective of location or the absence of travelling fans, does not resolve the fundamental moral question at the heart of this issue. There is no logistical workaround for crossing a Palestinian picket line. There is no neutral ground when genocide is being carried out in real time.
The Government’s failure to act on behalf of its electorate only confirms what many already suspect, that those in power are dangerously out of touch with the values of the Irish people. Ireland has long punched above its weight on the world stage as a voice for justice and human rights.
We must not surrender that reputation now.
The Irish Government and the FAI must do the right thing, or be forever remembered as having stood on the wrong side of history.
This Sunday Read was written by Greg Ennis, SIPTU Deputy General Secretary