On Saturday, November 8th, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) voted in favour of submitting a proposal to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to ban Israel from UEFA competitions. This motion, brought forward by Bohemian Football Club (FC), passed with seventy four votes in favour, seven against, and two abstentions.
Bohemian FC is widely recognized to be a left-wing and pro-Palestine football club, with them integrating social justice themes into their work, connecting sports with activism. This has manifested in events such as their friendly match with the Palestinian women’s football team in Dalymount park in 2024. They also sell a Palestine jersey, with a portion of proceeds going to support children in Palestine.
A letter in September 2025 to UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin from Bohemian FC, FairSquare, and Irish Sport for Palestine said that the Israel Football Association (IFA) “continues in 2025 to incorporate numerous illegal settlement clubs located in the territory of the Palestinian Football Association into its national league, including in Ma’aleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Bikat Hayarden and Ariel”.
The letter cited violations of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rules, and thereby UEFA rules, notably that “Article 64(2) of FIFA’s 2024 Statutes states that, ‘member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval’”.
They continued by stating that “Article 22 (3)(a) of the FIFA statutes binds UEFA to ‘to comply with and enforce compliance with the Statutes, regulations and decisions of FIFA.’ The fact that FIFA is failing to enforce its statutes in this regard does not void UEFA’s obligations”. In a similar vein, UEFA decided to not recognise any matches involving Russian backed Crimean football clubs or competitions and matches organised by the Russian Football Union involving Crimean football clubs in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea.
Bohemian FC has argued that UEFA should suspend the IFA to maintain the integrity of the sport, with them stating in September 2025 that “rules exist to protect fairness and ensure basic decency. UEFA can and should suspend the IFA with immediate effect. By not doing so they are not only doing a grave disservice to football, but also to the core principles of humanity itself”.
The motion will now be brought by the FAI to UEFA. If passed by UEFA, it will suspend the IFA from UEFA competitions. Each member association of UEFA has a vote at their congress. This motion is of great importance, and must be passed by UEFA to show that the world is taking a stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and against their system of apartheid. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that it was plausible that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and on September 16th, the United Nations (UN) published a report detailing that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Even since the “ceasefire” of October 2025, Israel has continuously broken the ceasefire, bombing Gaza repeatedly.
The IFA itself is directly complicit in Israel’s genocide and system of apartheid, with them having a reservist league for Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers, the very people committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Additionally, the IFA has six teams who are based in the settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. In October 2025, Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International said that “FIFA and UEFA’s relationship with the IFA – providing funding and allowing Israeli teams to play in international tournaments, despite flouting FIFA’s own statutes – means that FIFA and UEFA may also be contributing to these violations”.
Given the continuation of the genocide in Gaza, the system of apartheid against the Palestinian people, and the continued denial of the basic rights of Palestinians going all the way back to the Nakba in 1948, it is of utmost importance completely isolate and cut off Israel from the international community. We must isolate Israel diplomatically, economically, and in any international bodies. Isolation of reprehensible regimes in sport is nothing new, and has a long history, for example, Apartheid South Africa was suspended from FIFA in 1961.
The FAI took a moral and principled decision, and now UEFA must do the same. Will this directly end the genocide and system of apartheid? No. But, this can help to build the international pressure needed to enact change.
