Ireland to fulfil basketball fixtures with Israel

Ireland will fulfil their 2027 Women’s EuroBasket qualifiers with Israel after “extensive deliberation”, says Basketball Ireland.

In July, Basketball Ireland said it would “assess the next steps” after being drawn with Israel in the qualifiers and stated it was “extremely alarmed by the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza”.

After considering its options, which included a withdrawal from the qualifiers, the decision has been made by Basketball Ireland to play the two games in November and March.

However, Ireland have informed FIBA, European basketball’s governing body, they will only face Israel at a neutral venue.

Basketball Ireland chief executive John Feehan said the decision had been made after “lengthy consideration”.

“Facing Israel in these circumstances is not a scenario we would wish, but there has been no change in Israel’s status within sport, made by FIBA Europe, the IOC or any other major sporting body,” he said.

Basketball Ireland said it had “already experienced a 14-year absence from international basketball in the recent past” and any decision to not fulfil the fixtures with Israel would be “extremely damaging to Irish basketball and the women’s game”.

Sanctions could have included an 80,000 euros (£69,000) fine if Ireland boycotted the first fixture with Israel, which is scheduled for 18 November.

Failure to play the return fixture would have led to an additional fine of 100,000 euros (£86,000) and removal from qualifying for 2027 and 2029 EuroBasket campaigns.

Ireland could have withdrawn before qualification started and been handed a 30,000 euros fine (£26,000), but FIBA Europe rules left the door open for further sanctions.

Ireland will also face Luxembourg and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Group A.

It is not the first time Ireland have been drawn to face Israel since the ongoing conflict in Gaza started in October 2023.

Ireland refused to shake hands with Israel and stood at the side of the court for the national anthems in a 2025 EuroBasket qualifier in February 2024.

When Irish players raised concerns before that qualifier, Israel player Dor Saar said the Ireland team was “quite antisemitic”.

Israel coach Sharon Drucker also said Ireland “did not respect” what the game symbolises, while Basketball Ireland said Saar’s comments were “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate”, and reported the remarks to European basketball’s governing body Fiba Europe.