As Israel decision takes the slow and painful road, why are we still waiting on that FAI EGM?
Members should be dictating what happens next, not the Tesco Johnnies
The weather men promised us a heatwave for the weekend. The FAI all but promised us an announcement on Israel on Thursday. Their members promised us a fortnight ago that they would succeed with their calls for an EGM on the Israeli issue.
Welcome to the new side line for Irish football - the long wait. That it is centred around the most divisive story in our game since Saipan doesn’t help anyone.
The vote by FAI members to suspend Israel from all UEFA competitions was passed back in November after which senior FAI officers duly announced they would play Israel if they had to.
The Nations League draw that proved irony exists in European football and threw Ireland into the melting pot with Israel took place back in February when the Tesco Johnnies controlling the Board and the management team in Abbotstown declared that they had no choice but to play the two fixtures, including the one in Dublin.
The Stop The Game movement to keep Israel away from sharing any pitch with their Irish counterparts was launched in early May and has been gaining momentum ever since.
Over a week ago, the FAI Board first truly discussed moving the home game against Israel to a neutral venue, anywhere other than Ireland even though the world keeps saying it will be Hungary.
Twice in recent days the FAI Board has met again to decide what to do as public opinion rails against their sluggishness.
As Government sources leaked that the game in October will not take place in Dublin so two Dail motions - and two amendments - drew votes and protestors to Leinster House.
We were promised movement after the Board meeting on Thursday, movement that was delayed to avoid a clash with the women’s team and their World Cup game against France on Tuesday night.
It is now Friday morning and still there is no sign of white smoke from the corridors of power in Abbotstown as they scramble to make sense of a no-win situation, a no-win of their own making.
Football is fed up with this stuttering and stammering over an issue that has split the game and won’t go away, even if they announce today that the Ireland-Israel home game will be played on the Isle of Man or anywhere else.
And football, or so we believed, took a stance at the end of May when those FAI members who control the real power in the game even if nobody accepts it, themselves included, got the 10 per cent of votes they needed to call an EGM of the Association with just one topic on the table - Israel.
Almost a fortnight later and there’s still no news on that EGM. As the Board dillies and dallies, what has happened to the democratic right of those dissidents to bring all AGM members of the Association together and let football - not the dilliers and dalliers - decide what happens next?
It is still an option if they really want to stop this game, even if the press release comes out from the FAI on Friday to confirm the game is moved, not stopped.
The members of Irish football control Irish football. It’s time they ended the long wait and reminded themselves of that simple fact. This ain’t Tesco and they shouldn’t be left on the shelf.