Farewell to the fiestas and the paella, time for Friday night lights
What we’re watching - LOI returns with an international flavour
Five2Follow - today’s developing stories
Preview - USA v Paraguay
29 May 2026; Galway United goalkeeper Evan Watts during the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Shelbourne and Galway United at Tolka Park in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
As Israel decision takes the slow and painful road, why are we still waiting on that FAI EGM?
Cathal Dervan, Editor
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.
The topsy-turvy Greatest League In The World is back and not a day too soon
Darryl Geraghty, Guest Columnist
So let’s count. Fourteen days, 336 hours or 20,160 minutes approx. is a long time but the sense of vacuity feels that much greater for the League of Ireland hardcore who have desperately missed their fix of the grand occasion, being back under the Friday Night Lights.
Yes, the League of Ireland is back.
Whereas the slow sands of time drifted slowly, the midseason break must have gone in the blink of an eye for the main protagonists of our weekly fix of drama.
Having run off the paella from parts of the Mediterranean and the tans of a week in the sun already fading, it was back to the serious business of a topsy-turvy league with all still to play for.
For a select few who didn’t quite make it to the sun-lounger, they would have returned to home base with chests sticking out slightly more having been rewarded for their stellar form with call-ups to the International fold.
25 May 2026; Connor Parsons of Bohemians in action against Tunmise Sobowale of Shamrock Rovers during the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Dawson Devoy, Adam Brennan, Kian Leavy, Matt Healy, Connor Brann and Ed McGinty, along with young Josh O’ Dwyer, should give the rest of the LOI contingent about to cross the white line a renewed sense of hope and optimism that good performances under the aforementioned Friday Night Lights won’t go unrecognised as in previous years.
As for the titanic tussles themselves, the pick of the games will be shown on Virgin Media tonight and will feature Shels versus Shamrock Rovers, the two teams responsible for the last six league titles (tongue firmly in cheek).
While at the opposite end of the table there is a mouthwatering clash between the bottom two as a slightly rejuvenated Waterford - with an unbeaten home run standing at five games - play host to Sligo Rovers in the hopes of bridging the gap to just five points.
Meanwhile, the race to stay on Shamrock Rovers’ coat-tails continues as Bohemians, six points behind, face a tough trip to Derry City and the under pressure Tiernan Lynch hoping to navigate the infamous Celtic Park pitch.
FIVE TO FOLLOW
Pico sticks to his point
The MO’N return confirmed
Questions asked of Heimir
Turner’s Cross for Galway & Dundalk
Reds bed in for the World Cup
Fellow title hopefuls St. Patrick’s Athletic welcome third from bottom Drogheda United with the visitors hoping to get their season back on track.
Level on points with The Drogs, and hoping to pull away from the wrong end of the table, are Galway United who face arguably the season’s surprise package in Dundalk who, if they continue their fine form, will soon be referred to as ‘European Football chasing Dundalk’.
Yes, it’s good to be back.
And it’s back indeed, Darryl and Cathal catch up on the resumption of the LOI and all things current as the games start thick and fast across the water in the World Cup.
No noise, just the news & views that matters. The Sports Hacks is a reader supported publication - if you like what you read, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber and sharing our work.
Pico Lopes, Ireland’s favourite World Cup player, has again insisted that the FAI need to stop the Israel game going ahead, not just move it to a neutral venue.
In an online media conference from Tampa, part of which is available on TheSportsHacks.Com, Lopes reiterated his total opposition to Irish players being asked to play against Israel.
The chair of the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland was responding to a question from RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue on the day the Board of the FAI met again to discuss the Nations League games against Israel.
“I said it from the start, my stance remains the same. I don’t think the game should be played,” Lopes told RTÉ Sport.
“It’s terrible that the players have been put in this position. It’s terrible that the FAI have been put in this position as well.
“It’s a decision that should have been taken out of their hands. It hasn’t, and I just think that for the majority of people in the country, they don’t want the game to be played.
“So, I just I think it’s time to listen to the noises outside. I do understand, it’s a very difficult position for players and even them having to face the interviews that’s a really hard position for them to be in.
“But my stance hasn’t changed. I still think the game shouldn’t be played.”
Martin O’Neill has signed a one year deal to stay on as Celtic manager with the option to extend for a further season if the 74-year-old Ulsterman wants to remain in charge at Parkhead.
After twice answering an SOS from the Celtic owner Dermot Desmond and winning the double in the season just ended, O’Neill has retained the job despite the club’s interest in Robbie Keane.
Sky Sports News reports that the new contract also comes with a one-year option to extend.
“It is once again a great privilege for me to continue as Celtic manager,” O’Neill said. “Last season will live long in all our memories and to be part of that success has in a big way whetted the appetite to work again for more days like those and bring our supporters those moments.
“Of course, none of this could have been achieved without the players and staff and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for bringing that level of focus, determination and talent to bear at the conclusion of the season to deliver the league and Cup double.
“I thank our fans for their ongoing support, it means everything to us. I look forward to being back at Celtic Park next season when we will come together and we will strive again to bring our fans the success which that support deserves.”
Heimir Hallgrimsson has been criticised for giving his League of Ireland players so little time in the recent international window with Shamrock Rovers star Aaron Greene defending Dawson Devoy and Kian Leavy after their reduced roles against Canada last week.
Dawson was replaced at half-time in that 1-1 draw while Kian Leavy and Greene’s clubmate Adam Brennan were late substitutes.
Greene told the Irish Mirror’s Mark McCadden: “I think the league is only striving in that direction and I think you see the young players, Kian Leavy getting brought on and Dawson, I don’t know was he told he was getting taken off at half-time. I kind of thought it looked like a shot at the league to be honest.
“We really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors but he was the one who had the best chance within the game in the first half, didn’t he?
Galwegian Darryl Horgan will wear the Dundalk colours against his hometown club in the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland Premier Division on Friday night - in Cork.
Due to the unavailability of Pearse Stadium, Galway United have been forced to move the game South as work continues on their Terryland home.
The newly crowned Soccer Writers Ireland player of the month told the Irish Examiner’s John Fallon: “Look, it’s not ideal. It’s always a very, very difficult game at Galway but, for me, it doesn’t really matter where you play.
“It’s disappointing that the game’s not in Pearse Stadium because I was really looking forward to that. The only downside is the distance for both teams and sets of fans to travel but it will still get a great crowd.”
The World Cup is up and running with Mexico off to a flyer in their 2-0 win at home to South Africa while Ireland’s conquerors Czechia were put back in their box with a 2-1 defeat to South Korea.
The BBC website is as good a place as any to keep up with the World Cup latest in a timezone hell and asks can the Czech Republic or South Africa turn things around and challenge for a spot in the knockout phase?
