Sinn Féin and Social Democrats call for FAI board to step aside

SINN FÉIN AND Social Democrats have said the leadership of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) should consider stepping down following this weekend’s chaos over the Nations League Israel fixture.

The men’s team voted on Saturday to proceed with the game, following hours of confusion and months of pressure by Stop the Game campaigners.

A growing number of politicians from the two opposition parties have strongly criticised how the issue was handled by the FAI.

Speaking on Pat Kenny’s programme on Newstalk, Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan said the leadership from the FAI was “completely absent”, adding that its approach to the Israel game has “caused a huge amount of division in the football team”.

Boylan added: “They have failed the players and failed to protect the players.”

Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne said Saturday was a “dark day” for the FAI, adding that the board, in particular its president Paul Cooke and CEO David Courell, “must now reflect on whether they are the right people to pick up the pieces”.

“The decision to ignore the will of the Irish people and fulfil the games against Israel will go down as the worst decision ever made by any board of the FAI, and that is saying something,” Byrne said.

Social Democrats spokesperson for sport Daniel Ennis said this weekend has been “really sad and a dark stain on Irish football and our country”, as he added his voice to calls for the board to consider their positions.

Ennis said players and management were “hung out to dry by the FAI board”, adding that he can “see no future for them”.

Ennis told The Journal on Sunday that the FAI board should resign.

“What we’ve seen through this whole process and especially in the last 24 to 48 hours was nothing short of shambolic and shameful,” Ennis said.

Earlier, he told Ireland AM on Virgin Media that the controversy had been an “awful case of mismanagement, of communications”, pointing to how Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson was questioned by Israeli journalists on his recent use of the word “genocide”.

Ennis noted that this had seen Hallgrímsson “wind back” from calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide, with the Dublin Central TD saying it should have never come to this and that there should have been better preparation.

Click here to read article