FAI says it did not ‘scaremonger’ public over sanctions for snubbing Israel game

Irish football bosses have rejected suggestions they used “scaremongering” to make the public believe any sanctions incurred for refusing to play Israel would have been more severe than was actually likely.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was criticised for not setting out exactly what sanctions could follow a refusal to play Israel.

However, it said the potential implications were not known because any sanctions would be decided by a separate body to Uefa.

David Courell, FAI chief executive, told the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport that he “completely refuted” the idea that the organisation tried to “pull the wool over anybody’s eyes”.

“I absolutely refuse any reference of scaremongering, gerrymandering, or anything of the sort,” he added.

Social Democrats spokesman on sport Daniel Ennis said that the inclusion in the projected sanctions of a loss on ticket sales was “scaremongering”, considering the Republic of Ireland’s home game was moved behind closed doors.

“Eight players didn’t want to play an international fixture. That is detrimental to the state of the game,” he said.

“The players agreed by consensus, in a meeting they called themselves, to play the game,” Mr Courell responded.

The FAI defended its handling of the fixtures, but Sinn Fein TD Joanna Byrne accused its president Paul Cooke of not taking the criticism seriously.

“I wasn’t smirking,” Mr Cooke replied.

He said that “68% of our members, who represent football in Ireland, grassroots and league of Ireland, supported the decision”.

“That is the football community voting. That is democracy at work,” he added.

“I told you where my leadership was. I said we would play the fixture. We seem to forget that we are a membership organisation.”

Later, after Mr Courell refused to call Israeli actions in Gaza genocide, Ms Byrne took aim at the FAI chief executive.

“A football match lasts 90 minutes,” she said.

“I believe regret, shame, and legacy last a lifetime. I think you’ve done a lasting damage to Irish football and I believe the culture of no accountability, as it was, remains in that regard.”

Mr Courell responded: “You’re a football woman. You know the game. We’re all here simply trying to do our best for Irish football.

“Every single decision we’ve taken over the last seven, eight months that we found ourselves in this situation that we did not create.

“I strongly refute any claim that we have cast shame on this game. The reality is, everyone involved in this organisation is either a volunteer or an employee that is simply trying to do their job as well as they possibly can.”

Ms Byrne responded: “You are making our country complicit in sportswashing, you have to acknowledge that.”

The cost of not fulfilling Nations League fixtures against Israel would have been more than 10 million euro, the FAI said.

There are three tiers of sanctions, the definitive, likely and possible, Mr Courell told the committee.

“Immediately we’d have all those sporting consequences of the points, the dropping down to Nation League C, increased likelihood of a potential of removal from the tournament,” he said.

“Then there’s financial consequences, which take the form of ticketing and hospitality loss, broadcast revenue, the participation fee for featuring in the tournament.

“It’s 5.5 million (euro) for an immediate impact, with a further 4.8 million (euro), of likely impact if we were to drop down into Nations League C and a corresponding impact.

“Then there is a possible impact, a third tier, which we didn’t put a number on, which goes above and beyond that 10.3 million (euro) that I’ve just quantified there, which would be multiples of that.”