The Journal and The 42’s reporting on the Uefa Nations League matches between Ireland and Israel is available to read here.

ONE OF THE few Irish fans who attended Ireland’s match against Israel on Sunday says he wanted to support the players after a turbulent week.

Frank O’Connor, who is originally from Clondalkin but now lives in California, has been going to Ireland matches since 1987.

The FAI had previously said no tickets would be sold to Irish supporters for Sunday’s game in Debrecen.

But O’Connor used his American passport to buy a ticket. His seat was in the section designated for Hungarian fans.

Three of his friends used Irish passports to buy tickets at the same time. All four tickets were cancelled by Saturday evening.

However, O’Connor told The Journal that after appealing the cancellation early on Sunday, his ticket was reissued, but his friends tickets weren’t.

“We went to lunch and were like, ‘well, you know what? We have tickets. They don’t work, but we do have tickets to walk in with’,” he said.

When they got to the entrance, his friends’ tickets didn’t scan. They told security they were only there for football and didn’t want to cause problems, and they ended up being let in.

Players were ‘let down’

O’Connor says he doesn’t think the game should have gone ahead.

“I believe we should have backed out a long time ago. The problem is, we hemmed and hawed and went back and forth,” he said.

“I said to my wife two weeks ago when Trump was in Ireland, your man’s getting treated better than the Irish players are going to get treated in the next two weeks, and I was absolutely right.”

The men’s team voted on Saturday to proceed with the game, following hours of confusion and months of campaigning by activists and some politicians.

#COYBIG 💚💚💚🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪💚💚💚 pic.twitter.com/guuO04ik9v

— Franko - COYBIG/California (@CoybigC) September 27, 2026

The players on the Ireland squad bowed their heads as the Israel national anthem was played before kick-off, and wore black armbands “in recognition of all the lives lost in the conflict”.

O’Connor said he and his friends chose to go to support them, “because honestly, we feel like the FAI and the government have let them down greatly”.

FAI president Paul Cooke has defended the association’s handling of the fixture. He argued: “Some people think it was quite well handled.”

But O’Connor says players were put in a “horrible situation”.

Frosty reception

Being one of no more than a couple dozen Irish fans in the stadium was “strange”, O’Connor said, but they mainly kept to themselves.

“Once we got inside, the FAI security spotted us, obviously, and came over to talk to us.

“We were afraid they were going to kick us out, but they said, ‘Look, you lads are in. We’re not going to question how you got here. Basically, we’re just here to tell you to stay away from these rails’.”

They were told they could still sing, chant and show support for Ireland.

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O’Connor said: “Look our job was to make sure that the team knew there was support there for them, despite everything that’s happened to them all week. And I feel like we did a good job.”

The Debrecen 11 #COYBIG 🇮🇪💚🇮🇪💚#IsrIre 3-0 to the Boys in Green

A game nobody wanted and never should have had to be played. Shame on @uefa, FIFA and the FAI. Everyone bowed to Trump.

Our players never deserved the abuse, but they somehow came through stronger.

It was an… pic.twitter.com/3ozbUaSv33

— Franko - COYBIG/California (@CoybigC) September 27, 2026

There was some tension at the beginning, however.

“They (the Israeli supporters) did yell at us ‘Irish bastards’, and they were giving us the finger,” O’Connor said.

“That was about 10 minutes into the game, and luckily about 30 seconds later Troy Parrott scored. To be fair, after that they kind of left us alone.

“They did congratulate us at the end, but obviously at the beginning they were giving us a lot of shite.”

Asked what he thought of goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu’s decision to withdraw from the squad for the game, he said: “I have no issues with any Irish player. Everyone has a right to make up their mind.”

He also said he wasn’t surprised Ireland lost the game against Kosovo last Thursday.

“This was all going on, and they weren’t being taken care of properly.”