LONDON: Ireland’s opposition party has urged the government to support a motion calling for the country to refuse to play in a football match against Israel, according to media reports on Tuesday, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.
Sinn Fein sports spokeswoman Joanna Byrne told reporters in Dublin that the government and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) needed to “do the right thing” and “refuse to get involved”, according to public broadcaster RTE.
The move comes ahead of a Sinn Fein motion due to be debated later on Tuesday and a motion by the Social Democrats on Wednesday, amid public protests in Ireland over the country’s upcoming international football match against Israel.
The FAI said on Monday that its board of directors continued to meet to “discuss the operational aspects” of hosting the Nations League men’s international football match scheduled to take place on Oct 4 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Meanwhile, Social Democrat MP Sinead Gibney said the proposal to move the Ireland-Israel match to a neutral venue would “put us in the most difficult position”, as “all the pressure would be put on the players.”
“And that’s something we wanted to avoid from day one,” he said.
Gibney said the government should “bar or exclude Israel from any international sporting competition” and that “tremendous” public sentiment was being expressed through the “Stop the Match campaign”.
The Social Democratic Party politician said he considered the actions of government officials who said they would not attend any such matches to be “extremely hypocritical”.
People Before Profit-Solidarity MPs Richard Boyd Barrett, Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy also voiced similar concerns, with Barrett insisting that “simply moving it to neutral territory is not enough.”
Commenting on leaked suggestions that the FAI was open to moving the match from Dublin to Hungary, he insisted: “Our message is clear, the match should be cancelled completely and should not take place at a neutral venue.”
Labour Party MP Duncan Smith also stated that the match should be boycotted.
Aontu party leader Peadar Toibin said he did not think the match should continue and insisted his party would support the opposition motion.
— BERNAMA-ANADOLU