FAI boss believes Israel games leave him in a lose-lose situation: ‘I have to do my job’

The FAI limps on, boats against the current of public opinion.We mean this somewhat literally. Chief executive David Courell gingerly arrived at a briefing with journalists on Friday, explaining he ruptured his Achilles while playing football.The FAI is doing its best to protect Heimir Hallgrímsson and the players from criticism around the playing of fixtures against Israel over the next couple of weeks, and so the suits have fronted up to make it clear that this was their call.Though Courell spoke for more than an hour in that unflappable corporate tongue to which we have become so accustomed at Abbotstown, we get the sense he is not bearing anything around the Israel games easily. He came to explain the FAI’s position on fulfilling the fixtures, knowing that many Irish fans utterly reject the premise of their stance, as they see this as an uncomplicated matter of morality.READ MORE“Please do not interpret this as me trivialising the atrocities that are happening in Gaza,” said Courell. “I am acutely conscious of that and am hugely empathetic with it. But equally, I can’t just take my FAI CEO hat off and leave it to the side. I have to do my job.”Courell’s job is to do right by Irish football, and it is for this reason the FAI believes the games should be played. They say the direct cost of a boycott would be €5.5 million, rising to almost twice that if other knock-on sporting sanctions are applied. Critics among the FAI’s General Assembly say these figures are opaque, but Courell stands over them. He says they are based on obvious sporting consequences, such as relegation to League C of the Nations League and its attendant damage to seeding positions.The FAI has also warned of greater possible sanctions, writing to members earlier in July to say a boycott could lead to potential exclusion from the entire Nations League and from future Uefa and Fifa competitions. Uefa’s rule book gives it the power to do this, but Courell is adamant they haven’t threatened to do so.“They said, ‘Well, if this scenario presents, then a disciplinary hearing will be scheduled and the sanctions will be agreed based on the facts and the situation that presents’,” said Courell.Mascots hold a banner which reads 'Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians' before the 2025 UEFA Super Cup final between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur at the Friuli stadium in Udine, Italy. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/ AFP via Getty Images Does he think an independent Uefa disciplinary panel would really throw the book at Irish football for boycotting games against a nation that last year provoked Uefa to display a banner reading “Stop killing children”?“No, I don’t, hence why we didn’t model it,” he said. “This inference that we exaggerated the impact . . . We didn’t lean heavily with our communications to members saying ‘we either play these games or we are removed from European football’. [That] was not the message. We were very clear – there is a sliding scale of impacts. What we focused on were the sporting sanctions and the immediate financial impact.”The FAI is of course in this position because Fifa and Uefa have not banned Israel in the first place. The FAI’s motion to Uefa last year echoed the motion proposed by the Palestinian FA to Fifa in 2024, calling for Israel to be suspended on the basis they had contravened statutes regarding racism/discriminatory behaviour and by arranging games on occupied territory in the West Bank.An independent Fifa panel did not rule on the latter allegation, citing “the unresolved legal status” of the West Bank, despite the International Court of Justice ruling Israel’s occupation of the area to be unlawful. The same panel found a pattern of insufficient punishment by the Israeli FA when dealing with racist incidents against Arabs. Fifa, though, limited the punishment to a suspended fine of €164,000. Uefa haven’t added any additional sanction.Does Courell feel the FAI has been hung out to dry by Uefa?“No, I feel frustrated that we’re in this situation,” he said. “I wish these decisions were not resting with us, let’s be clear. I wish they were taken on another level. That is why we have these institutions in Uefa and Fifa, but equally I have a degree of empathy. Irish sentiment is very clear, very strong, and the FAI position is the same, but there are 54 other federations that make up this membership and Uefa have to take on board all the viewpoints.”Courell insists the FAI continues to lobby Uefa to exclude Israel from competitions, though some of the FAI’s voting members have expressed scepticism about the strength and tenacity of these efforts. Given this context, we asked Courell to make a commitment that the FAI would stand before the floor at the next Uefa Congress and argue this point in front of their fellow members. He stopped short of making a promise, but said it would be taken under consideration and discussed. He also said the FAI are pushing for change at the top of the game.“This is something that we, the FAI, and the Irish people feel very strongly about, and we would like to see change at an institutional level,” he said. “So that’s the way the conversations are going.”The FAI had signalled its support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino until his recent controversial plan to sell off chunks of the World Cup. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images But if the FAI is truly advocating institutional change, then why did the association endorse Gianni Infantino for re-election as Fifa president earlier this year, only reneging on support after a plan to sell off chunks of the World Cup came to light?“We, along with north of 200 countries, supported him originally. If you reflect over the last 10 years, there has been a lot of progress made within Fifa,” said Courell, citing the expansion of tournaments and the increased level of funding for the sport’s development.When asked about the context of supporting Infantino after Fifa rejected the Palestinian FA (PFA) motion to suspend Israel, Courell said: “Infantino would say it is an independent body that arrived at that decision. I am sure we all have our opinions on Fifa decisions of recent years. I personally feel the ruling with regard to the PFA motion was inadequate.”Amid all of this, Courell and the FAI also face a trip to an Oireachtas sport committee between both games against Israel. He hopes the home game with Austria on October 1st, scheduled between the Israel matches, passes without significant interruption from protesters.“While we fully support peaceful protest, I would ask the fans, and the true fans that are in the stadium, to recognise that interrupting the game is not going to derive any outcome,” said the FAI chief. “You can have your voice heard in a peaceful manner and still allow our young athletes to go out and perform and represent the country.”As he spoke to us at the Aviva Stadium, 10 protesters gathered outside for more than an hour. In addition to these peaceful protests, Courell and other members of the FAI executive and board have been targeted for personal criticism online. The association’s president, Paul Cooke, was pursued and harangued by protesters after a League of Ireland game in July.“We fully recognise that everyone is welcome to their opinion on this and these games. We are happy to be part of that conversation,” said Courell. “With that said, there are slightly more extreme members of the public, or campaign, that I believe have passed a threshold on occasion, with direct targeting, with effectively harassment online and in-person, and I think that needs to be reflected upon. It is unnecessary, it is unwelcome and I don’t think it reflects well on those individuals.”Courell presented himself as a man forced into a position whereby he must separate the personal from the professional. He knows a vast swathe of the Irish public believe it is morally wrong to make that separation. These positions cannot be reconciled.