FAI unavailable to meet Oireachtas committee but Israel questions will still come their way

Amid EGM call, TDs insist it is Stop The Game, not Move The Game

The FAI have turned down an official request from the Oireachtas Sports Committee to return to Kildare Street on July 15th to discuss one or two ongoing matters. They can’t attend due to holiday cover - but they have offered to turn up on certain dates in September.

Now, to be fair to them, when we discovered that they had been invited yesterday as Sinn Fein TD Joanna Byrne spoke to me on LMFM Radio live from Drogheda, we also found out that the original invitation from the Committee didn’t mention the Nations League games against Israel.

But, given the protests outside their Abbotstown HQ yesterday and the one planned for Saturday in Drogheda - never mind the strong statement from the Palestinian football authorities last week distancing themselves from any endorsement of the Israel game - you would have to think that the Israel matter would have come up in the Oireachtas in a fortnight.

So it’s probably good news for those who handle PR matters in the FAI now that the holiday season is more important than the international football season. After all, those TDs supporting the Stop The Game movement tend to take full advantage of their question time, as is their right.

The aforementioned Joanna Byrne is one of those TDs. She is also a lifelong football fan who is still as committed to Drogheda United as ever, despite her recent removal from the Board after she had put voice to her support for the Stop The Game movement.

That’s what made her revelation yesterday that the FAI had been invited back into the Oireachtas on ‘other matters’ so interesting. She acknowledged that but also told the Drogheda based radio station that, in her opinion, any potential debate around the Israel fixture is the ‘reason’ why they refused to meet the committee over the next couple of weeks.

Given the amount of money the Government gives the FAI, that is quite the statement. So is the fact that the FAI, according to Joanne, told the committee that there is no date in July or before the Dail recess when they can make it back to Leinster House. Pesky things, holidays.

Joanne had many other interesting things to say yesterday on the Israel boycott subject, all of which are available on the LMFM podcast for their flagship show, The Agenda.

She remains adamant that the use of a statement from the Palestinian football authorities in their own FAI statement announcing the transfer of the home game against Israel to a neutral venue has backfired on the FAI. An act of deception she called it.

Joanna also told listeners that the Stop The Game movement will now double down with their efforts to do as their campaign title says.

She’s not alone by the way. People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy told the same show that he believes some Irish players will boycott the games in September and October, even if the FAI won’t.

Labour TD Ged Nash insisted on Monday that moving the game out of Dublin will not resolve the issue and added that UEFA have ‘gotten off Scot free’ in this debate. As indeed they have, so far.

All that may change. At lunchtime on Friday, the FAI wrote to AGM members confirming that the Board has indeed now called that EGM to discuss Israel on Wednesday, July 8th.

The notice of the meeting says that wording for a proposed motion to be put to the General Assembly has been reviewed and accepted by those members who had previously called for such an EGM, a call that was ruled out of order.

Given that the FAI Board are adamant that the games against Israel will be played, it seems certain there will be no mention of the word boycott in that agreed motion on July 8th - assuming holidays don’t force that EGM to be postponed as well.

This gets interesting now. Have those AGM members who demanded this EGM reneged on their beliefs that the Israeli fixtures should be boycotted? Are they now happy with a neutral venue?

We will find out in due course but one thing is for certain - the Stop The Game movement isn’t going away and they won’t accept any neutral venue as three TDs confirmed this week.

This story has a long way to go - and probably all the way back to Leinster House for the FAI Board and their senior management team. Sooner rather than later, I suspect.