Stop The Game campaign: "We're going to ignore apartheid but adhere to the rules of this competition. It's total nonsense"

Chief Operating Officer of Bohemians FC and member of the Stop the Game campaign, Daniel Lambert, has described the decision to play Ireland’s Nations League fixture overseas as “total hypocrisy".

The FAI released a statement this morning saying Ireland's home Nations League fixture with Israel will be held overseas and behind closed doors.

The decision was confirmed, following approval from UEFA.

The Stop The Game campaign is demanding that the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) boycott and cancel its upcoming matches with Israel scheduled for September and October 2026.

“What Israel is doing is even more cruel than Russia is doing”, said Lambert, who is the manager of Irish rap trio Kneecap, who are also part of the campaign. “They’re both abhorrent, but the Israeli action is worse on so many levels.

“It’s just total hypocrisy, that we see in international law, that we see in sports and we see it across the board. Israel is given total impunity to do whatever it wants. Ireland should be brave enough in this instance to take a stand.

“I think it is unfair… [the players have] been let down, they’ve been let down by the FAI, and this shouldn’t be a decision that they have to make. My interpretation is they want the decision taken away from them.

“Israel is practising apartheid. The Irish government’s position is that Israel is practising apartheid. We are going to ignore that, but we are going to adhere to the rules of this competition. It’s total nonsense. It’s a ludicrous position to take.”

FAI President Paul Cooke warned of "serious consequences" for a boycott, including relegation and financial sanctions.

“This idea that it would harm the FAI is absolutely false,” argued Lambert, who is also an Executive Committee member at the association. “If anything, it would enhance the FAI. Yes, there may be some short-term repercussions in that, but I think it would enhance the view of the FAI, domestically and internationally.”

Micheál Martin declared in the Dáil last week that he didn’t want the Irish National team to be disadvantaged as a result of any decision made and that he “would hate to see the team lose out in terms of future qualification prospects”. Ireland are placed in group B3 with Austria, Israel and Kosovo. Forfeiting the games under current UEFA rules would result in two 3-0 losses, effectively forgoing their chances of promotion and likely putting them into a relegation scrap with Kosovo.

“It’s not credible,” Lambert says in response to the Taoiseach’s reasoning. “Would it be likely that we lose six points? Yes, that is likely. But that doesn’t mean automatic relegation. Kosovo are in our group. There could be a relegation play off, there’s a whole load of things.”

“A political decision would have to be made with UEFA if they were to sanction the FAI. I don’t believe UEFA would sanction the FAI”.

Irish Sport for Palestine issued a pre-action letter to the FAI, Sport Ireland, Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan calling for a boycott of the Nations League fixtures in September and October.

“The pre-action letter put the Ministers, Sport Ireland, and the FAI on notice over their various legal obligations that arise from the decision to allow the games to proceed,” it read.

“The legal correspondence asserts that the FAI and Sport Ireland must undertake their own due diligence to ensure that the spending of public funds complies with their domestic human rights obligations.”

In response, the FAI told Hot Press that “The Association does not have any further statement to make right now regarding the UEFA Nations League games involving our Ireland Men’s National Team.”

Sport Ireland said they “received the letter from Phoenix Law Solicitors regarding the upcoming Ireland-Israel UEFA Nations League fixtures and is reviewing it."

“All National Governing Bodies of Sport, including the FAI, are independent, autonomous bodies, which are responsible for their own decision-making processes and operational activities, including the organisation of sporting fixtures. Sport Ireland has no role in the organisation of UEFA fixtures," read their response.

Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan did not respond to requests for comment.

Patrick O’Donovan, said last week that he wouldn’t attend the fixture (which at the time was planned to go ahead as usual in Dublin) as a matter of personal protest.

“I thought that was absolutely outrageous,” Lambert says. “He wouldn’t attend but the players should. I don’t know what the logic is of that statement.”