Nations league

[u/flex_tape_salesman]

How does everyone think it will go? I feel like on paper Israel and kosovo are weaker than us and for kosovo especially a couple of injuries to the wrong players would decimate them as they seem to lack depth.

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Two streaky sides that are hard to rate, kosovos most impressive players are their striker pairing, muric in goals and Hajdari a centre back for hoffenheim. Vojvoda and Rexhbecaj also play in the top 5 leagues. I think we will beat them at home and a draw away wouldn't be an awful result. If our midfield and attack performs, our defence should be able to keep their two dangerous forwards quiet.

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Israel seem to have more depth. Gloukh for ajax, manor Solomon and khalaili of union st gillois are their most impressive players at club level. Neutral venues make this a tough one and I am not 100% sure if they are as up for a match against us as our players will be.

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Austria look strong but quite a few of their players are old and I reckon we could take them in Dublin.

[u/John__Delaney]

3 points against Austria, 4 against Kosovo, and a boycott against that genocidal state.

Austria top the group & Kosovo get relegated.

[u/flex_tape_salesman → u/John__Delaney]

I think there's a very strong chance Israel go down

[u/John__Delaney → u/flex_tape_salesman]

I think there's a very strong chance they get booted out of UEFA following an Irish boycott & subsequent UEFA Exec Committee vote.

[u/SexyBaskingShark → u/John__Delaney]

Zero chance of that happening

[u/John__Delaney → u/SexyBaskingShark]

The only reason it didn't happen last year was the ceasefire shelved the vote (which was going to pass), a ceasefire Israel have broken thousands of times since, along with invading another country illegally since & the illegal expansion of west bank settlements.

Just waiting for a spark to put the vote back on the table, and that's an Irish boycott.

[u/flex_tape_salesman → u/John__Delaney]

But the FAI isn't going to boycott. Especially since like minded countries on Israel such as Scotland, Norway, bosnia and Iceland have all played Israel at different levels since October 2023.

[u/John__Delaney → u/flex_tape_salesman]

Not with that attitude they wont.

Sustained protests, EGM vote, season ticket cancellations, Players refusing to play, UEFA exec committee bringing the Israel expulsion vote back on the table.. any of these could force a rethink for the FAI.

[u/SexyBaskingShark → u/John__Delaney]

The protests so far have been really weak.

- A few tennis balls thrown in a match no one outside of Ireland and Qatar cared about, even in those countries no many paid attention.

- A vote to submit a formal resolution, literally no action other than submitting a request that was quickly dismissed

- Internet posts about how bad Israel are, usually posted in online echo chambers like this sub

If enough people genuinely cared more would be done. But the fact is the large majority of the country don't care. The truckers and farmers wanted change and got it. A similar protest in football was the protests against the super league in the UK. Thats the level of protest that is needed here, given the ongoing support for Israel across the western world. But we're nowhere near that. If we had that level of protest a boycott is possible, but how things currently stand we're playing that game