Ireland defeated Israeli team in Debrecen, Hungary, on Sunday as a deeply controversial UEFA Nations League fixture exposed a widening divide between Irish football authorities and supporters over playing the Israeli team amid the genocide in Gaza.
Ireland’s players wore black armbands, bowed their heads during the Israeli national anthem and refused the customary pre-match handshakes with the Israeli players.
But the most striking statement came from outside the pitch, where most Irish supporters stayed away and pubs in Ireland and abroad deliberately refused to show the match in protest.
The near-empty stadium underscored the unusual circumstances surrounding the fixture, with approximately 100 Israeli supporters and only a handful of Irish fans in attendance.
For many Irish supporters and campaigners, the issue was not simply whether Ireland should win or lose a football match, but whether Ireland should have been playing the Israeli team at all while Palestinians in Gaza face the consequences of Israel’s military campaign.
The boycott campaign gathered significant support in the months before the match.
More than 160 Irish sportspeople signed an open letter calling on the Football Association of Ireland to reconsider the fixtures, while a poll of Irish football supporters found 76% opposed to the match going ahead.
The decision to proceed consequently became a source of anger and, among some supporters and commentators, a source of shame that Ireland was taking part in the fixture despite its longstanding support for the Palestinian cause.
That sentiment was visible across Ireland’s football community.
At Peadar Browns pub in Dublin, the televisions remained switched off despite the venue normally being packed for major football matches.
Owner Aidan Brown said he had compiled a list of about 140 pubs and bars in Ireland and abroad that had refused to screen the match.
“The points are just not important at all,” Brown said.
“Football is just football. Sadly, it just doesn’t mean that much when a genocide is going on.”
The boycott was also reflected in Derry and other parts of Ireland, where venues joined the campaign against screening the fixture.
Rebecca O’Keeffe, chair of Irish Sport for Palestine, described the campaign as a mass movement that had spread beyond the usual circles of political activism.
“It’s a mass movement,” she said.
“It’s reached corners of Ireland that maybe wouldn’t have been engaged with this issue before.”
The controversy also reached the Ireland dressing room.
Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrew from the fixture, saying he believed it would be wrong for him to participate.
“Therefore, I feel it would be wrong to participate in the upcoming fixtures against Israel,” Bazunu said.
“My decision is based purely upon my personal belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong.”
Bazunu’s decision came as Irish players held discussions about whether to fulfil the fixture, with the Football Association of Ireland eventually saying that a significant majority of players had voted to proceed.
The Football Association of Ireland had previously sought Israel’s suspension from UEFA competitions, but UEFA rejected the request and the fixtures proceeded.
The Irish public debate has therefore increasingly focused on the question of whether sporting institutions can treat the fixtures as ordinary international football while Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza continues.
For critics of the decision, the black armbands and gestures during the match did not erase the underlying objection: that Ireland should not have taken the field against Israel in the first place.
The second fixture is scheduled for Oct. 4 in Bačka Topola, Serbia, meaning the controversy is unlikely to end with Ireland’s 3-0 victory in Hungary.
At the center of that controversy is Gaza, where Israel’s military campaign has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and generated genocide allegations before international courts and UN investigators.