Ireland V Israel in the nations league.

Well this is a spicy group.

Ref: FAI facebook

While the nations league is all about the football usually, you can bet that the Ireland - Israel game will be all politics given the nature of the relationship between these two countries since the war on Gaza escalated two years ago.

Ireland proposed a motion to ban Israel from FIFA in the current climate and our manager backed this up with his statement at the time,

Hallgrímsson previously expressed criticism of Israel over the country’s actions in Gaza.
In October 2025, the Ireland boss said: “I don’t see the difference in Fifa and Uefa banning Russia and not Israel, I don’t see the difference, but I am not speaking on behalf of the FAI or anyone. I just don’t see the difference.
Ref: The42

He did say that he would fulfill a fixture if it came up but that the governing body of FIFA should apply the same rules across the board to Israel.

The two countries have been in a war of words and politics for the past couple of years as well with tension growing on both sides. IT will be neutral venues as Israel can play home games and there would be riots if they tried to play in Dublin.

So while this will be a football match by all appearances it will be a lot more behind the scenes.

As for the group itself I've seen people saying that it's a tough one but realistically it's a great draw with none of the big teams in our group and a good chance against any of these opponents.

Hopefully we get an automatic qualification into the euro's anyway depending on the other home nations qualifying through the league and a couple of spot reserved for hosting nations.

Wales and Scotland have some tough games though and even England got a tough group to play from so no guarantees.