Ireland MP Ennis urges boycott of Israel matches
Social Democrats TD Daniel Ennis wants Ireland to skip Nations League games with Israel, citing Gaza deaths as more important than points on the table.
Daniel Ennis, an Irish parliamentarian for the Social Democrats and a former footballer, has called on the national team to boycott its Nations League fixtures against Israel, kicking off at 21:45 Moscow time.
"There are things that matter more than sport. What do six points mean in the face of mass killings? What do six points mean in the context of ethnic cleansing? What do six points mean amid genocide? Six points can be earned again. A dead child cannot be. Nor can the tens of thousands of dead Palestinians," Ennis said, quoted by the Irish Mirror.
The sides meet again on 4 October in Serbia. More than 160 Irish athletes had already urged the men's team not to take the field against Israel, citing the death toll and destruction in Gaza, restrictions on humanitarian aid and the occupation of Palestinian territory, with international bodies weighing allegations of breaches of humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention.
UEFA rejected an FAI request to keep the two sides apart in the draw, chief executive David Courell said earlier this month. Both teams go into the fixture without a point after one match in this Nations League group.
Ireland captain Nathan Collins remains a doubt after a calf injury picked up for Brentford earlier this month, leaving the side already short at the back before the question of whether to play at all.
Ennis's intervention adds political pressure to a fixture UEFA has already declined to defuse by separating the two countries, and puts the FAI in the position of deciding whether to heed calls from its own athletes with a second meeting still to come in Serbia on 4 October.
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