UEFA has rejected a request from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to prevent Ireland and Israel from being drawn against each other in future competitions, FAI chief executive David Courell said Friday, according to JNS.
Courell said the request followed Ireland’s pairing with Israel in the UEFA Nations League. UEFA’s policy is to consider requests to separate national teams individually, particularly when there are structural security concerns. The organization already keeps some teams apart for political or security reasons.
According to Courell, UEFA rejected the Irish request because the two countries have never been in “direct conflict.”
The decision comes as the teams prepare to meet twice in the Nations League: Israel will host Ireland at Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary, on September 27, while Ireland’s designated home fixture will take place behind closed doors at TSC Arena in Bačka Topola, Serbia, on October 4. The FAI moved the latter match from Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, citing “operational challenges.”
The FAI has also decided to scale back some of the customary activities surrounding the matches. Courell said the association will not host Israel Football Association officials at the traditional pre-match dinner for the October fixture and has requested that the same arrangement apply in Hungary. The FAI is also seeking UEFA approval to put “Respect” messages on stadium LED boards, while sponsor branding is expected to be reduced.
Ireland had previously called for Israel to be suspended from international football. In November 2025, 93% of FAI members backed a call for the association to lobby UEFA for Israel’s suspension. In July, however, members voted 75-32, with three abstentions, to endorse the decision to fulfill the Nations League fixtures. The FAI has estimated that refusing to play could cost €5.5 million ($6.3 million) in direct revenue and potentially result in forfeited matches and relegation.
A forfeiture could also have consequences for Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2028, which will be co-hosted by Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
“Please do not interpret this as me trivializing the atrocities that are happening in Gaza,” Courell said at Friday’s briefing. “I am acutely conscious of that and am hugely empathetic with it. But equally, I can’t just take my FAI CEO hat off and leave it to the side. I have to do my job.”
The dispute comes against a backdrop of increasingly strained relations between Ireland and Israel. Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state in May 2024, and Israel announced in December of that year that it would close its embassy in Dublin, citing what it described as the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.”
Tensions also emerged in April 2024, when Israel’s Foreign Ministry criticized then-Taoiseach Simon Harris for not mentioning the Israeli hostages in his first speech to the Dáil. Harris’s office rejected the criticism and said he had repeatedly condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack and called for the hostages’ release.
Ireland’s current president, Catherine Connolly, has also drawn criticism for her stance toward Israel, including describing Israel as a “terrorist state.” Her sister, Dr. Margaret Connolly, participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza earlier this year and was among those detained after Israeli forces intercepted vessels in the flotilla. Connolly said at the time that she was “very proud” of her sister.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Yom Kippur in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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