On 27 September, Ireland will play Israel over 2,500km away from Ireland in Hungary. On 4 October, Ireland’s ‘home’ leg shifted to a ‘neutral’ ground in Serbia. At both matches, no Irish supporter will be let through a turnstile.
On the one hand the FAI insists its hands are tied by UEFA. On the other hand the match is deeply unpopular: recent opinion polls put support for a boycott at 76 and even 91 percent. Simply put, the FAI fears playing the game at home and with Irish supporters.
Outrageously UEFA has refused to suspend Israel from its tournaments, citing a commitment to “fairness, integrity and equal treatment”. Obviously this is only sheer hypocrisy from an association that suspended Russia from every competition within days of the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
No less outrageous has been the behaviour of the Irish government. When it came to a vote on whether the match should go ahead or whether the government should cover the FAI’s fine for boycotting the game, their position became that this was “a matter for the FAI.” The same government that formally joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ decided a fine for the FAI was where its principles stopped.
The point is they are always ready to act tough when it comes to Russia, etc. But when it is about the allies of their imperialist masters (like Israel) they are nothing but paper tigers – lots of talk but no meaningful actions, not even stopping a football match.
The need to build the revolutionary party capable of leading the fight against imperialism is the conclusion one football match has already proven.
