Colin Sheridan: Almost right on Israel, the FAI fail to stand its ground

Even when Ireland gets it right, it fears being seen to do so. That’s the Irish condition, really.

POLITICAL FOOTBALL: The 2025 annual general meeting of the Football Association of Ireland at the Carlton Hotel in Blanchardstown. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Of all the things I figured the FAI might be accused of, antisemitism and competence were not two of them. I am fairly certain they are neither. And yet, somehow, they stand on trial for both charges - one absurd, the other unlikely - as Ireland’s football administrators find themselves at the centre of a moral stand they almost accidentally took.

On Saturday the FAI voted to submit a motion to UEFA calling for the suspension of Israel from all European competitions - a move proposed by Bohemians FC, that obstinate, socially conscious Dublin club that has made decency fashionable again. It was, for once, the right kind of politics in sport: an act of moral consistency in a world where football’s leaders tend to mistake silence for neutrality.