CALLS HAVE BEEN issued for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to boycott football matches against Israel in the Uefa Nations League.

Ireland was drawn into the same group as Israel, Austria and Kosovo for the league last night, and the FAI confirmed shortly after the draw that Ireland would be fulfilling the games against Israel.

Previously FAI membership and the Irish manager have called on Israel to be banned from competition.

At an EGM last year, a motion tabled by Bohemians calling for Israel to be banned from Uefa competitions was passed by a significant majority. The FAI wrote to Uefa on 20 November last year to formally request that Israel be banned from competition. 

However, the FAI said yesterday that they would be fulfilling the fixtures because they’d risk being disqualified from the Nations League if they didn’t play the games. 

Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne has accused the FAI of only having a principled position “on paper”, and called on it to boycott the fixtures against Israel. 

“In November, the FAI voted to submit a motion to Uefa to ban Israel from its European club and international competitions. That was the correct moral and principled position to take,” she said.

“Therefore, I am extremely angry and dismayed that the FAI have confirmed they will play against Israel. It appears that their morals, and principled position, was only on paper – not in actions where it counts.

“Israel should not be in this competition. Uefa should have expelled them as soon as Israel went into Gaza on a genocidal, ethnic cleansing mission that has seen tens of thousands of innocents murdered, including hundreds of sports men and women.

Byrne said Uefa is displaying “double standards” as it expelled Russia from all club and international competitions in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine. 

“I hope the FAI knows the furore that will be coming for them from the Irish football fans – the vast, vast majority will not want to see our Boys In Green in the same stadium as the Israeli team.

Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that the Irish footballing public would support the FAI if it decided to boycott the fixtures on the basis of an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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“Any individual player who refuses to play against Israel should also be supported”, he said.

“History demands we stand against genocide and apartheid and for international law.”

The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 70,117 people as of December 2025.

The FAI has been contacted for comment.