Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan has said that a boycott by the Ireland women's team of their EuroBasket qualifier against Israel would mean a decade in the wilderness for the sport in Ireland.
Pressure has been growing on the Irish team to boycott Thursday's game, with the Irish Sport for Palestine group leading the campaign and hundreds of Irish sporting figures putting their name to a letter calling for the fixture to be scrapped.
The match was supposed to take place in Israel back in November, but was postponed until 8 February due to security concerns caused by the ongoing war in Gaza. Basketball Ireland requested that the game take place at a neutral venue, with Riga in Latvia selected.
If Ireland do not fulfil the fixture, they will face a fine from FIBA Europe of €80,000. Failure to play the return game in November would result in an additional fine of €100,000 from FIBA Europe, and removal from the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 tournament.
Feehan revealed that Basketball Ireland did seek an alternative to playing the game but were told by FIBA that they must fulfil the fixture or face those heavy sanctions.
"I’m pretty sure we’d be hit pretty hard because we did actually ask was there an alternative to playing this game and all the rest of it, and from that perspective there isn’t [an alternative]," Feehan said,
"They’ve told us we have to play it and if we pull out now it’s very much with a [€180,000 fine]. Money is everything, it is very important, it would be detrimental to us because we’re not a very rich organisation.
"But the really big issue for us is we’d be effectively getting rid of a generation of players. We’d be out of international competition for the next five years effectively.
"Not only would we be out of international competition for the next five years but it would probably take us another five years to get back to where we are now, so in real terms we’d lose a generation of players.
"We’d also lose role-models for our kids as they go through the process of learning to play basketball, there’d be nowhere to go."
Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan has said that a boycott by the Ireland women's team of their EuroBasket qualifier against Israel would mean a 10-year long spell in the wilderness for the sport in this country. pic.twitter.com/5uetXRd9i5
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 6, 2024
Feehan does not believe that a boycott would have any material effect on the situation in Gaza and that it would only serve to harm women's sport in Ireland.
"What's happening in Gaza is dreadful, we all acknowledge that. The issue is whether this is going to make a difference to the Israeli government and, quite frankly, we don’t believe this would make a blind bit of difference.
"What it will do is destroy our women’s international game for the next ten years."
Former Ireland international Rebecca O'Keeffe observed that "It's not until the return game in November that they could incur a second fine and potential ban.
"It's worth noting that there is a separation of sanctions there and a lot can happen in the meantime."
Five Irish players are believed to have chosen not to travel to Latvia and O'Keeffe said that "By [authorities] not taking a firm stand, it's up to the players to take a stand.
"No judgement to the players who are going, it shouldn't have been in their hands in the first place. The governing bodies, and FIBA especially, should have taken it out of their hands"
Feehan said "the support is not there" from FIBA members to ban Israel from competition.
In a new statement, Irish Sport for Palestine rejected Feehan's argument and claimed that fulfilling the fixture will be 'ruinous' for the sport here.
"John Feehan claims boycotting the game against Israel would be 'ruinous' for Basketball Ireland.
"Well, Irish Sport for Palestine says not in our name, and that playing with Israel will forever be 'ruinous’ for his and Basketball Ireland's reputation.
"Israeli basketball coach Sharon Drucker says 'Sport symbolizes something and the Irish didn't respect that'.
"Irish Sport for Palestine reiterates that Basketball Ireland cannot look the other way and be complicit in the grotesque sport-washing of Israeli genocide.
"They must commit to boycotting the Israeli match now."
Israeli head coach Drucker and his players posed for pictures on Sunday with armed soldiers, including former player Yuval Holtzman, in uniform.
"Both the team and our players are not disconnected, we know what is happening with the Irish and what happened to them," he said.
"There is no point in getting the players hot and fired up because they will come with motivation and a desire to win anyway.
"I have a lot to say about it but I prefer not to speak and keep the national team focused on basketball but sport should be an integral part of what it symbolizes and Ireland did not accept that. We will concentrate only on basketball and nothing more."
On the court, Ireland coach James Weldon is getting on with the business of preparing for the fixture albeit with a squad that’s been hampered by injuries and player withdrawals.
Star player Claire Melia is unavailable for the encounter while captain Edel Thornton is out with an ACL injury, but Weldon believes his squad can cope.
"The squad varies from window to window, you’re always dealing with a turnover of players," he said. "They’re all amateur players, they have jobs, they’re studying and you have to deal with that from window to window.
"Edel is a massive loss with the injury and just her leadership all around the group as well is sorely missed.
"But look, we’ve managed pretty well, there’s good spirits in the group, good focus and we’re looking forward to the challenge ahead."
Follow the RTÉ Sport WhatsApp channel for the best news, interviews, analysis and features, as well as details of our sports coverage across all RTÉ platforms.
