'I am not prepared to destroy my sport for a gesture that will have no impact'

The Irish body has spelled out the consequences of a moral stand: fines of up to €180,000 and five years in the wilderness for the international women’s team.

Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan pictured at the launch of the Basketball Ireland 5 Year Strategic Plan. Pic credit: Laszlo Geczo, Inpho.

Ireland’s delayed and rearranged EuroBasket qualifier against Israel won’t be the only game in town when the countries meet in Riga’s Rimi Olympic Center tomorrow evening.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul will face Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season game – the first ever in Latvia - at a much larger Arena Riga that sits across the street just as the other game winds down.

On Sunday, Latvia play the Israeli women in their own EuroBasket qualifier in Ireland’s Group E at the Rimi arena and the local federation is offering tickets for anything between €5 and €20 for the chance to catch one or both of the latter two ties.

Ireland, meanwhile, neglected to host this qualifier in Dublin on the basis of expected protests and the claim that the safety of the Israeli team could “not be guaranteed”, and it is their understanding that their own game will be played behind closed doors.

Yet for Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan, and women’s head coach James Weldon, the spotlight continues to shine unceasingly their way with the Irish Sport for Palestine movement accusing the sport of a “grotesque sports-washing of genocide”.

Weldon and his squad arrived in Riga on Monday and reported a fully fit roster after training yesterday, but it has been reported that they travelled without five dissenters while captain Edel Thornton is injured and some are unavailable for work/study reasons.

The coach was unwilling to get into the weeds as to who was and wasn’t available and why. Feehan made clear that there would be no “consequences” for those opting out and was again resolute in defending the decision not to boycott the fixture.

“In simple terms, between Ireland and Israel there is over a billion euro worth of trade every year. Why basketball is the one that gets hammered… I reiterate, we have huge sympathy for what is happening in Gaza.

“All the players, whether they are in Latvia or not, feel the same way but … is it going to make a blind bit of difference if we make a grand gesture? The simple answer to that is no, and I am not prepared to destroy my sport for a gesture that will have no impact.” 

The Irish body has spelled out the consequences of a moral stand: fines of up to €180,000 and a five-year spell in the wilderness for the international women’s team – and that on the back of Ireland’s long exile from the global game for financial reasons in the recent past.

Weldon has been around the international programme for the best part of two decades now and he has no desire to see a repeat scenario having watched players like Lyndsey Peat, Aoife McDermott and Louise Galvin drift away to other sports back in the day.

“Like, Lyndsey Peat is on Laochra Gael this week. That’s a killer for me. To use a GAA analogy, we don’t own the jersey. There will be another coach after me and it is important that we leave the jersey for someone to take it up.” 

Weldon and Feehan spoke with the players about the wider issues in the run-up to this week, and the CEO stressed that they had sought an alternative to fulfilling the fixture only to be told by FIBA in no uncertain terms that there was none.

Among the criticisms that have been levelled at Basketball Ireland has been one of hypocrisy given their vocal stance in calling for a ban on Russia and Belarus in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The body contacted FIBA in May of that year to say they would not fulfil a planned fixture against Belarus as a result. This was prior to FIBA’s decision some weeks later to withdraw the two countries from their competitions.

“There is a misrepresentation as to what happened,” said Feehan. “In simple terms, we did write to FIBA before an official announcement was made but we were requested by FIBA to send that note in to them so they could then justify what they were doing. Not just us but every other organisation in Europe, for that matter.” 

Ultimately, nothing Feehan or Weldon say will change minds wedded to the belief that this game should not be played regardless of consequences, not least with photos emerging yesterday of Israel’s coach and captain posing with an armed member of the IDF forces.

The same applies for anything uttered in support of the idea that the sport should have never been placed in such an invidious position in the first place, not least given the silence from FIBA itself, counterparts such as FIFA, or in the real corridors of power.

This is a lose-lose for Ireland and Irish basketball, regardless of events on court in Riga.