Stuart Gilhooly: FAI members unhappy over the Israel games can still stop them. Here’s how

As we all know by now, Ireland have been drawn to play Israel in the men’s Nations League away in September and at home in October. This piece isn’t about whether we should play the Israel games. I have my own very strong views on that, but so do many others.

This is about how the board of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has gone about making the decision, what I think it should have done and what options the members of the FAI now have to take the matter into their own hands.

Explaining the decision by the board to fulfil the fixtures, FAI president Paul Cooke said in a note to members: “The board cannot act in a manner that would place the association or its directors in breach of their legal duties or expose the FAI to severe sporting, financial or reputational sanctions.”

FAI chief executive David Courell was asked at a press conference whether the FAI general assembly had the right to overturn the decision through a motion to boycott the fixture. “Whether or not we fulfil these fixtures is a decision for the board and the executive. As such, that decision has been taken,” he replied.

In a narrow, technical, legal sense, it is probably true to say it is a board decision, but there is another way of going about it.

[ Refusing to play Israel ‘not within the best interest of Irish football’, says FAI chief ]

If the board wanted to put the decision to the members then it certainly could. Indeed, if the members wanted to take ownership of the decision then they can also do that.

For technical legal reasons, which I won’t go into here, all they need to do is to propose and pass a special resolution of the members (75.1 per cent needed) to amend the constitution of the FAI and include a simple sentence that this decision is one for the members, not the board.

Seventy five per cent is a lot, but don’t forget that 93 per cent passed a resolution last November to ask Uefa to remove Israel from all competitions. (A vote to pass a special resolution would have to take place at an extraordinary general meeting, and only 10 per cent of members are required to request one.)

Ultimately, the general assembly of any body of this kind is the governing authority – the FAI rules actually state that. If enough of the members want the board to do something then the board is compelled to do it (unless it is illegal, which clearly does not apply here).

The “legal obligations” Cooke referred to were not defined, but we must assume that these are contractual in nature. These are just breaches of Uefa rules. We get a sanction, Israel get the points. There are also, of course, financial implications.

The argument that we may be relegated to Group C or lose seeding are valid, but the assumption that we are throwing away six points in the group doesn’t really pass muster given our recent records against similar opposition.

And let’s not forget, it’s clear that Uefa and the Israeli FA are also in breach of rules. Uefa has failed to sanction Israel for permitting six Israeli clubs to play in another Fifa member’s territory without the permission of the football association which governs that territory, namely the Palestinian FA. So, really, breaching rules isn’t all that unusual.

When it comes to decisions of this nature, best practice is for a board to go to the members and at least try to deliver upon their views, after an informed, open and honest debate.

This, of course, isn’t what’s happening. The FAI board has already made a unilateral decision without any consultation and is ignoring the views of members, which were made abundantly clear in November.

There is a realistic possibility that the members would not approve of a decision to boycott the matches, but good governance and good sense dictate that they should be given the choice.

The FAI members do have another option (either by agreement with the board or by special resolution), which is to resolve that the FAI should sue Uefa and the Israeli FA for their long-standing breach of Fifa rules in permitting clubs in the occupied territories to participate in the Israeli league system without the Palestinian FA’s consent. These breaches are straightforward and obvious.

Any sanction could ultimately be suspension of the Israeli FA, or indeed termination of the membership of the Israeli FA from Uefa, and therefore from Fifa, if it doesn’t comply with the rules.

Alternatively, the FAI members could decide to do both. It’s up to them. The decision should, and does, rest with the general assembly, a body comprising the full gamut of Irish football. The board should simply comply with their wishes.

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