Republic of Ireland Women to Play Israel After Four-Hour Player Talks and Nations League Vote

Ireland will go ahead with their Nations League fixture against Israel after the squad voted on whether to withdraw from Sunday’s match.

The game in Debrecen, Hungary, descended into uncertainty after goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu said he would not take part, amid mounting criticism over the conflict in Gaza.

More than 17,000 people have signed a petition urging Ireland to boycott the fixture. Pressure intensified when the Football Association of Ireland postponed training and a scheduled pre-match media conference while senior discussions continued at the team hotel.

FAI chief executive David Courell later confirmed that the players had voted to fulfil the fixture.

“I would like to apologise to the media for the delay and interruptions today. It is a challenging time. The squad was in Pristina yesterday, where an extensive conversation took place and the consensus was to travel to Hungary. It was a two-hour meeting,” he said.

“This morning, one player expressed discomfort to the head coach and indicated an intention to withdraw from the squad. That development required time and deliberation. What followed was another four hours of discussion, primarily involving the players, but at times also staff and executives.”

“A range of views was put forward, and we fully respected everyone’s right to express an opinion on these issues.

“Ultimately, within the last 90 minutes, the squad held a vote on whether to fulfil the fixture. A significant majority voted to play, and the association decided to proceed with the match.”

Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson confirmed that Bazunu would miss Sunday’s game, while the rest of the squad would continue training.

“This morning was simply a change of mind from one of the players,” he said. “All the other players are training today. The balance changed because of this, and the discussion is ongoing. We have not reached a conclusion. There will be further conversations tonight and tomorrow. It is a unique situation.”

The FAI also confirmed that Ireland would not take part in “elements of the pre-match ceremony”, although it did not specify which parts would be omitted.

Hallgrimsson had already caused controversy by saying his side were “playing against genocide” amid Israel’s attacks on Palestine, where more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

The comments prompted an angry response from Israeli officials. At the same time, calls for Ireland to abandon the match grew among supporters, with an online petition collecting more than 17,000 signatures.

On Thursday evening, Bazunu’s Ireland team-mate Jason Knight also spoke publicly about his unease at facing Israel in Sunday’s fixture.

“I don’t think the game should obviously be going ahead, but it is going ahead,” Knight said. “We’ll have a deeper conversation about it and what it means, share our thoughts as a group and take it from there.

“It is uncomfortable. There has been a great deal of discussion, rightly so, about the situation we are in. But I thought Dara spoke very well on Wednesday.”

‘It’s a bigger spotlight obviously (around the Israel games) and not focused on the football itself. It’s very, very unusual and none of us have come into this scenario before so we’re learning on the fly as well. So we’ll talk as a group and see what is the best foot forward.’

Defender Dara O’Shea, meanwhile, admitted his side are in a ‘tough position’.

‘As soon as the game was decided by the FAI, the government and Uefa, we were always going to be put in a tough position. We feel exposed, it’s come down to us as such at the end,’ he said this week. ‘We knew that was going to be the case and this was going to come our way. It’s a difficult situation but we understand the severity of it too.

‘It doesn’t really necessarily matter my opinion entirely. It’s about the group’s decision. We’ve got to come together as one and navigate that ourselves. This is obviously slightly different.’

Ireland are due to play Israel twice in the Nations League during this international break with both games played at neutral venues. It remains to be seen whether Israel would be awarded the full six points in the events that Ireland boycotts both fixtures.

Hallgrimsson was set to front the media for the first time since telling reporters last weekend: ‘We’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. So, we’re playing against Israel. We’re not playing with Israel.’

The Israeli FA angrily took to social media on Monday to hit back at Hallgrimsson’s comments, meanwhile, when he used the word ‘genocide’ in previewing the upcoming fixtures.

As reports circulated that the Israelis were considering a complaint to UEFA, the Israeli FA posted on X on Monday night: ‘We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way,’ the post on X stated.

‘Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by the Republic of Ireland team coach.

‘We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we’re playing against the coach who embodies them.’

Israel were criticised following their first game of the international break, too, which saw them lose 3-1 against Austria.

Sayed Abu Farchi was sent off in the second-half of his side’s defeat, having taken the corner flag out the ground and mimicked a gunshot, though others have suggested he could have been imitating a snooker shot.

Fans were left stunned and judged the move to be in bad taste. Abu Farchi protested with Bulgarian official Georgi Kabakov at the time, insisting he should have stayed on the field.

But he was already on a yellow card, and Kabakov opted to show him a second booking, resulting in his dismissal.

Israel manager Ran Ben-Shimon leapt to the defence of the Colorado Rapids midfielder after the game, insisting the celebration is regularly carried out by Abu Farchi without punishment.

‘I’ve seen it before and everyone can check,’ said Ben-Shimon. ‘When this young player scores, in the Israeli national team or the MLS or anywhere he plays, he celebrates in the same situation again and again and he never gets a yellow card about it.

‘He didn’t know about it, this is his way to celebrate every goal he scores. He’s a young player, I’m sure this lesson will stay with him a long time, he made a mistake.’

UEFA rules, meanwhile, suggest the referee was right to show a second yellow card.

They say a player must be booked for ‘gesturing or acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way’. Removing the corner flag is also yellow card worthy.