Republic of Ireland winger Chiedozie Ogbene has urged the public not to ‘put the pressure on us’ over the campaign to boycott the upcoming Nations League games against Israel.
Israel and the Republic of Ireland are due to meet in Debrecen, Hungary on Sunday before the return fixture in Backa Topola, Serbia on 4 October. Both games are scheduled for 19:45 BST. Since the sides were drawn together in Group B3, there have been increasing calls in Ireland to withdraw from the matches because of the ongoing situation in Gaza, with a ‘Stop The Game’ campaign gathering pace.
In the build-up to Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Kosovo in Pristina, stand-in captain Dara O’Shea confirmed the players would meet on Friday to discuss their approach to Sunday’s home game for Israel, which will have no Irish fans in attendance. The following week’s match is behind closed doors.
Ogbene said he was aware of the feelings around the issue but argued that footballers should not be left to make decisions that are not theirs to make. ‘It’s a complicated and very difficult task,’ he told RTE Sport. ‘I just want to say and I hope people don’t put the pressure on us to be answering difficult situations. There are people who can make the decisions and you can’t rely on footballers to make those decisions. That’s my feeling on it but as a group we will look at it and will see what we’re going to do.’
The context to the boycott calls is the conflict that began after the armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Ogbene does not accept that the debate around the Israel games was a reason for the disappointing display in Pristina. ‘I know there is a lot of discussion about things like that, but we just tried to focus on Kosovo today,’ he said. ‘All our mindset was on Kosovo to win this game and then deal with that’s coming.’
Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side had just two chances throughout the game, with goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher making some fine saves. Kosovo efforts were cleared off the line before the hosts finally broke the deadlock seven minutes from time through Vedat Muriqi. It was another slow start to a Nations League campaign for the Irish, and Ogbene accepted it ‘wasn’t good enough’, while also being disappointed to be off-target with a big opportunity in the opening half.
‘I thought we may have had enough quality to see it out at 0-0, but overall, it was poor from myself and poor from the standards we set ourselves,’ he reflected. ‘I need to do more. I tried to focus on the ball and just mishit it, but I need to do better. We’re overly disappointed with the result but most of all the performance as it’s not like us.’