An elite European football match will be played on Sunday at a neutral stadium, with no away fans and reduced television coverage. The Republic of Ireland will face Israel in the Uefa Nations League in Debrecen, Hungary, against a backdrop of ongoing and increasingly volatile disagreement between the two countries over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. That the game is taking place at all had been in doubt, with one side holding a vote on a motion confirming whether it would participate amid significant opposition from fans, pundits and politicians.
Israel have not played a fixture on home soil for three years, since the beginning of the Gaza war, and have used Hungary as a home base for ten matches in that time. Hungary has been deemed a suitable host nation because the two countries enjoy stronger diplomatic ties than exist between Israel and many other European nations, and because it has been willing to provide the policing and security arrangements needed for matches to operate smoothly. The Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, where Israel have played six home fixtures over the past three years, will have empty stands for Sunday’s game.
The Republic will face the same opponents again on 4 October in a nominal ‘home’ match in Backa Topola, a small town in Serbia. The Football Association of Ireland decided in the summer to play its home fixture at a neutral stadium, citing “operational challenges that could impact on the delivery of the game on home soil”. Reports have claimed the FAI was concerned that protests could prevent the match from taking place in Dublin. The FAI gave no official reason for choosing Backa Topola, although a remote venue in Serbia in theory makes security management easier and reduces the possibility of protest.
Serbia’s ties with Israel are close. In 2025, Serbian foreign minister Marko Duric described Israel as one of Serbia’s “closest friends and strategic partners”, and Serbia has purchased military equipment, including drones and missiles, from Israel in recent years.
The dispute over whether to play at all dates back to the Nations League draw in February, when the Republic of Ireland were placed with Israel, plus Austria and Kosovo. The FAI immediately faced calls from some quarters to boycott the matches because of Israel’s military action in Gaza, and in July it took a vote of its delegates. Seventy-five members voted to play, 32 to boycott. The FAI said that not playing could have harmed Irish football in the long run, given the possibility of Uefa sanctions for refusing to fulfil the fixtures and the potential loss of millions of euros in income.
No tickets have been sold to Irish fans for either fixture, and only a small allocation is available for Israeli supporters at the first game, as has been the case at multiple previous Israel home matches staged in Hungary. Irish public broadcaster RTE will air a stripped-back version of the coverage, with no commentators, pundits or half-time analysis, and will not take advertising or sponsorship income from the matches, saying it will only “meet its contractual obligations” to broadcast them.
The decision to move the games to neutral venues has not curtailed opposition. Fans of various Irish clubs have demonstrated against the matches during domestic fixtures in recent weeks, and on Monday more than 160 Irish athletes signed an open letter organised by the Irish Sport for Palestine group urging a boycott. The signatories include boxer Tyrone McKenna and former European champion athlete Ciara Mageean.
FAI chief executive David Courell said last week that Uefa had rejected a request for the teams to be kept apart in future draws. The association’s director of football, John Martin, described the games as a “very uncomfortable situation for everyone”. Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson said playing the match did not constitute legitimisation of Israel’s “genocide”, adding: “We’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel.” In response, the Israel Football Association accused Hallgrimsson of “ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity”. The Republic had also faced Israel in Women’s EuroBasket qualifiers last autumn and earlier this year, after what were described as extensive deliberations.
Irish support for the Palestinian cause is long-standing. The Republic of Ireland has been among the European countries to most keenly show solidarity with Palestinians since the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in October 2023. More than 73,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. In May 2024, alongside Spain and Norway, Ireland officially recognised a Palestinian state, and later that year joined South Africa’s Gaza genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The country has boycotted Eurovision since 2025 over Israel’s continued participation, was the first EU country to ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and has issued travel bans for Israeli government ministers. On Monday, Irish foreign minister Helen McEntee said: “Ireland’s view is clear – international law is being breached. We are seeing an attempt to erase a population.”
Israel has criticised Ireland’s standpoint and claims its actions in Gaza constitute self-defence, after the armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Last summer a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and this year a further investigation determined that the country had deliberately targeted children with military force, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations that it has committed genocide.
The Republic of Ireland is not the only nation to have shown reluctance to face Israel in international football. In 2024, Belgium refused to host Israel on home soil and the match was held instead in Debrecen. The president of the Norwegian Football Association, Lise Klaveness, made a public statement last year saying Israel should be suspended from European competitions, and Turkey also called for Israel to be banned. BBC Sport reported last autumn that Uefa executives were considering a vote on whether to ban Israel, under pressure from representatives from a number of nations, but any plan to hold a vote was pulled when the first phase of a ceasefire was announced last October.