Irish football’s governing body has approved a resolution to call on UEFA to suspend Israel and its club sides from European competitions.
Saturday’s ballot of Football Association of Ireland (FAI) members – which was carried by 74 votes to seven with two abstentions – was to submit a formal resolution to European football’s governing body calling for the ban over alleged violations of UEFA rules.
In a statement, the FAI said Israel’s FA had allegedly failed to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and allowed Israeli clubs to play in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank without the consent of the Palestinian FA.
The motion, proposed by one of Ireland’s leading clubs, Dublin side Bohemian FC, echoed similar calls in September by Turkish and Norwegian football bosses for Israel to be suspended from international competition.
They acted after a commission established by the United Nations investigation accused Israel of committing genocide during the war in Gaza and demanded that both UEFA and FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, suspend Israel from international football.
Israel has denied committing genocide, with the country’s foreign ministry calling the report “distorted and false” and saying it “categorically rejects” it.
‘A heavy price’
UEFA previously began discussing a possible ban, but talks ended after a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on 10 October.
If a ban were introduced, it would put UEFA on a collision course with the US government, which is Israel’s biggest global backer and co-host of next year’s World Cup, with Canada and Mexico.
US President Donald Trump’s administration strongly opposes such a move.
A UEFA ban would stop Israel from taking part in its competitions, but may not affect Israel’s World Cup qualifiers, which FIFA organises.
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On Friday, senior US Republican politician Lindsey Graham criticised the FAI for holding the vote and said he would do everything he could to “make those who participate in this effort to marginalise Israel in sports, and elsewhere, pay a heavy price when it comes to access to the American economy”.
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Mr Graham and other members of the US Congress have criticised the Irish government’s plans to restrict trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Ireland has been one of the European Union’s most outspoken critics of Israel’s war in Gaza.
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The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.
Sky News has contacted the Israel FA for comment.
