Any Other Business must feature an open and honest debate on Israel game at FAI EGM on Thursday night

General Assembly members need to have their voices heard

The Football Association of Ireland is a democratic organisation - something to remember ahead of Thursday night’s EGM/General Assembly meeting, a hybrid event online and in person at Abbostown.

It’s also worth pointing out the democracy element to anyone whose behaviour suggests they think the Association can be run from the top like a big shareholder business, Tesco say, with reports and accountability served up on a need to know basis.

There are, in my opinion, some in the new FAI who don’t get that. Tomorrow night’s meeting for example has little or nothing of any great current and immediate importance on the agenda until you get to the final item.

As always, there’s a welcome from the President, the minutes of the last GA meeting to be approved, a proposed ratification of another independent director and updates on strategy and governance reform.

There’ll be nothing new I suspect in either of those two updates, certainly nothing that will get the football family up off their feet or onto their online microphones, the majority of the GA members being those who are there to represent the actual people who run football on a local level across the country.

It’s only when you get to item 6 on Thursday night’s agenda that this hybrid meeting has the potential to get really interesting - Any Other Business.

With the meeting scheduled for only two hours, you’d hope they get to the AOB sooner rather than later. Or some of us will hope they do!

So what could come up for discussion amongst AOB? Euro 2028 maybe. The Dalymount Park rebuild perhaps. Oireachtas updates? The contract saga around two young players at Shamrock Rovers? The recent pledge to ensure players with dual eligibility don’t escape the net?

And Israel maybe? Oh yes, Israel. Just in case you forgot - it’s a topic that’s bound to come up tonight. Isn’t it?

Those two UEFA games against Israel in the Nations League, one in September and one in October, remain on the horizon. It is the latest and potentially most damaging split yet within Irish football - even if some of those left in the Abbotstown offices and boardroom post the recent restructuring would prefer it to just go away.

They’ve made their decision after all, the FAI powerbrokers. They say Israel will play at the Aviva Stadium on the first Sunday in October based on police advice. The Gardai have said it’s ok, that they will be ready and able for any demonstrations around this fixture even though the recent fuel protests saga would suggest otherwise.

The Government say it’s all down to the FAI hierarchy who say it’s all down to the Gardai and UEFA - amid their fears about upsetting their European football paymasters no doubt.

So who is listening to the football family on this? Who is taking on board the vote taken by the General Assembly on this matter last November? Who is listening to the players in the League of Ireland who have voted against this game?

Who is listening to Christy Moore and Paul Weller and Kneecap and Mary Coughlan and Frances Black and the Stop The Game campaign?

That’s a question that needs to come up under Any Other Business on Thursday night. It’s a question that needs to be answered simply because it isn’t going away and it won’t go away, not until the middle of October at the earliest.

Personally speaking, I fully understand that the games against Israel need to be played. They just don’t need to be played in Dublin or Tel Aviv.

As soon as the Nations League draw was made late last year, I’d have announced a consultation period with the Ireland players and fans, with the Government, with UEFA and with the other teams in our group, namely Kosovo and Austria.

I’d have also announced that the home leg would be played at a neutral venue subject to instructions otherwise. Take the sting out of the story and let the outcome find its own destiny via democratic means.

But so what? Nobody will listen to me so let’s see who talks and who listens under AOB on Thursday night!