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Swansea City were stuck. Over the last five completed seasons, they have finished between 10th and 15th in the Championship. They earned between 57 and 66 points each time and had a goal difference that ranged from +4 to -10. They never once got beyond the fourth round of a cup competition.

What happens when Championship clubs get stuck in mid-table? They lose money to go nowhere. It is worse even than going down and up because at least that allows some budget restructuring.

You do not want to give up your place, but the only eventuality is throwing money at something your fanbase is uninspired by. In 2024-25, attendances fell to their lowest since 2010.

Some of that atrophy was a product of external influence, the state of the game. Much else was self-inflicted, apathy on prescription delivered by Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan. The then-owners had overseen relegation and then stagnation. Their investment, beyond keeping the thing ticking over, drifted.

So Swansea’s league position began to feel like their only existence. At the last count they lost £22m and had the third lowest revenue in the division. Commercial revenue went down by £1.9m.

Matchday revenue was in the Championship’s bottom three because they had the fourth lowest attendances, but nobody could justify expansion and the stadium did not belong to the club anyway.

On a bottom-half wage bill, Swansea had the fourth worst wage-to-revenue ratio. That was the bleakest part of finishing in mid-table – it actually represented overachievement by most measures. The ceiling gets lower and the floor shifts with it. To repeat: Swansea needed a change.

Few EFL clubs look and feel more different to two years ago. In November 2024, Levien and Kaplan sold up to allow fellow Americans Andy Coleman and Brett Cravatt to take over as majority shareholders. They also partnered with Shamrock Capital, an investment firm in Los Angeles, to add further investment.

The commercial revenue issue was attacked with a call for minority celebrity investment that makes Luka Modric, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart part-owners of the club. It may sound a little gauche, but it also works to increase a club’s global profile. Just ask the Championship club in north Wales.

Coleman and Cravatt have vastly increased the spend on the playing squad. Before last summer, Bernat Celina in 2018 was Swansea’s last signing for £3m or more. They signed two above that figure last year and five more this summer.

It was the second highest net spend in the division even considering the sale of Ethan Galbraith for £10m. Who was first? Just ask the Championship club in north Wales.

You can raise concerns about the level of that spending given the previous annual losses, but then the Championship is a division taglined by the mantra of “speculate to accumulate”.

If Swansea, with their wage bill and their resources, want to break out of the funk quickly then incoming transfers are the most likely route.

And it is an exciting squad, particularly in the final third. Last season’s Championship top scorer Zan Vipotnik is competing with Adam Idah and Ross Stewart (a free transfer arrival from Southampton) is due back from injury soon. Moussa Yeo (signed from RB Salzburg) is on one wing and either Melker Widell or Joseph Opoku on the other.

Elijah Just, starter of New Zealand’s World Cup campaign, joined from Motherwell and can play just behind the striker. Jeremy Monga signed from Manchester City on loan and can’t even get on the bench.

Manager Vitor Matos, appointed last November after only 12 games as a head coach in Portugal, was a significant gamble but is paying off.

He prefers attacking, front-footed football, refuses to sit back on leads or discuss the league table, and has Swansea top of the Championship. It is a remarkable turnaround in performance and mood.

Off the pitch, Swansea appointed Ben Stevens this summer as their new sporting director. Stevens had been an assistant in the same role at Crystal Palace, but had worked for a decade in the club’s recruitment and performance analysis departments.

And, speaking of recruitment, that is where Swansea may well have supercharged their future.

Jamestown Analytics is the data model created by Tony Bloom and used by Brighton for their own recruitment and player analysis, to impressive effect. It has also been used by Union Saint-Gilloise (sister club of Brighton) to fuel a league title win, Hearts (sister club of Brighton) to fuel a title challenge and Como to fuel Champions League qualification.

“Swansea City now has access to world-leading, industry-renowned expertise that can help the club work as efficiently as possible in our player trading model,” as the club’s welcome statement read.

Last summer they signed one player from abroad. This summer, players based in Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Portugal joined and all are aged 20-23.

I do not know if Jamestown Analytics is powering the start to this season. It seems a stretch given the nascent nature of the relationship, although Yeo has been excellent.

I do not know if Swansea can keep this up, with the parachute clubs circling with deeper, stronger squads. I do not know if the player trading model can work in the Championship, given the financial gap to the division above.

But I know this: it is going to be fascinating to find out.

Read more

• Comment: Man City should be stripped of their titles
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Swansea have effectively tried to cherry pick the best bits of multiple models: the celebrity investment of Wrexham, the counter-pressing of Jurgen Klopp, the sporting director from the Premier League, the data model that has powered the most impressive football club growth in England over the last 15 years.

Most important of all, the Swans are not stuck anymore. Attendances are at their highest since the first season following Premier League relegation.

Supporters are enthused by something different and the bubbling suspicion that something special may be building. It is exciting, it is fun and nobody quite knows where it will lead. And that is just about all you can ever ask for.

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Manchester City staff are facing the prospect of job losses if the club are relegated as punishment following their Premier League charges.

Several employees who The i Paper spoke to, who wished to remain anonymous, said they understood that any potential relegation – a possible punishment for City – could have wider consequences.

There are concerns that jobs could be at stake.

Relegation would mean a significant loss of revenue and staffing would potentially need to be drastically reduced.

Uncertainty is at the forefront of their minds. There has been no contingency planning for a guilty verdict.

Some believe that process was the correct one, as “people may operate differently in their jobs if they thought there was a chance things could change so dramatically”.

In other areas, City lead the way in succession planning. Some staff are frustrated that the possibility of a guilty verdict was not addressed.

“This season is going to be so difficult to focus on now,” one staff member said. “How can we look to the future, when we don’t know what our future looks like?”

While City’s initial response has been to indicate they will fight the charges, with the process still “ongoing”, according to the club itself, there has been open speculation in football about whether that commitment will continue if the impact is as significant as some expect.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s open letter to City supporters on Saturday afternoon sought to reinforce the club’s outward confidence about being vindicated, while there is clearly a long way to go before the case reaches its conclusion.

One source at a rival Premier League club said Friday’s news was probably “half-time” in the case. The verdict has also prompted questions about the future ownership of the club.

The potential for compensation cases following the verdict – with four clubs having already indicated they will pursue legal action if the independent commission’s decision holds – could leave City Football Group facing claims worth hundreds of millions.

That could raise questions over the owners’ future commitment to the club.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire likened it to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia’s approach to LIV Golf, where the losses eventually reached a scale where it was no longer worth pursuing and they decided to take the reputational hit of closing it down.

“Manchester City’s accusations cover a nine-year period so the scope of what rival clubs could be claiming for is huge,” he told The i Paper.

“There’s loss of bonuses from sponsors, loss of winning the Premier League in its own right and not competing in the Champions League. We could be talking astronomical amounts of money here.

“So what would be the reaction of Manchester City’s owners to this? They could take the same approach as PIF did to LIV Golf. They realised the extent of the losses, decided they didn’t want to do it anymore and could they therefore walk away?

“Manchester City would still be an attractive proposition to a new owner but a lot of undecided issues to be resolved.”

For anyone associated with City, schadenfreude has long been part of life at the club.

Supporters used jibes about “little old City”, empty seats or their uber-wealthy Abu Dhabi owners for their own amusement. Everybody hates us, and we don’t care.

They have been told by Al Mubarak and Pep Guardiola that the club was not guilty of the 115 charges levelled against them by the Premier League. Supporters believed them, as fans do. Their confidence in the club’s position made it difficult to think otherwise.

Friday changed all that. The verdict that City supporters – and those who had watched the case continue for years without a conclusion – had been waiting for finally arrived.

Supporters are now left to consider what happens next.

“I’m just sort of tired, as a City fan, I’m tired,” City podcaster and YouTuber Steven McInerney told The i Paper.

“It’s all draining, and I honestly would much rather be just talking about Rayan Cherki playing football.

“It’s hard to know where to plant my flag. Football clubs are not on a local level anymore, everything is so murky, we are dealing with international politics here.

“Unless I spend days reading all these documents and try to understand the litigation, all I can talk about is what it feels like to be a fan.

Read more

• Comment: Man City should be relegated and stripped of their titles
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“I need a solution so we can make some form of sense and then I can talk about football at City again, whatever level that will be at.

“If City are relegated and properly punished, then lots of people will want answers. I am not saying City fans will demand an apology, but we need someone senior to come out to us and explain things, so we can recreate that bond again.

“The appeal process cannot drag on for years. City fans will not be able to take that. We need clarity, one way or another.”

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WEMBLEY – Spanish arms raised in triumph. Again. Another victory in an unprecedented run of 39 matches unbeaten, but there was nothing inevitable about this result. Indeed, had Harry Kane hit the net from the spot instead of the bar, England would have led 3-1 and been good value for it.

DNA be damned. This was football at its most pure, two teams responding to each other, going at it irrespective of culture and habit, and for once defeat did not meet with English introspection.

Anthony Gordon, scorer of England’s first, returned from his exposure to La Liga with Barcelona with his head full of concern about the nature of English football, what its essence might be. He was sure of one thing: it wasn’t Spanish.

And a good thing too, for on this stirring night at Wembley, England eschewed respect and deference toward the world champions in favour of confidence and belief in themselves. The performance was in many ways better than the first half against France in Miami, a game of nil import played for bogus World Cup bronze.

Thomas Tuchel needed a night like this to convince a good number of England fans that he and not the players were made of the right stuff. His account of the disastrous retreat against Argentina in the World Cup semi-final did not tally with the skill quotient of his talented squad.

His comments about deep, cultural resistance to the idea of controlling matches was just manure and viewed as such by the majority of supporters. Spain’s first two were gifted by Marc Guehi inside two minutes, and in the second half by Nico O’Reilly, who, hitherto, had been outstanding.

In between, England ran Spain seriously out of their imperious shape, proving that no team, not even world champions, can find football so easy under pressure. Spain improved in the second half under the diligent prompts of Dani Olmo, but England, driven forward by Jude Bellingham and Gordon, were always in coiled-spring mode.

Spain’s third was a painful lesson in the brutality of elite sport, the world champions ruthless when opportunity knocked. England kept coming, thriving all night on big Jude Bellingham energy. Gordon wasn’t far behind, his intelligent running and urgency a persistent threat as if he wanted to ram home the idea that England can play this game too.

Spain found an extra gear when they needed it. Maybe that is the lesson England must learn. Fast and furious can be compelling, but not at the expense of composure. Those unforced defensive errors meant Spain never really experienced the pressure they were under as stress.

The third goal stole England’s momentum for a 15-minute period during which the ronda blossomed to give the impression that Spain always had this match in their pockets. They didn’t. England were full of imagination and urgency, too much for Spain at times.

It helps, however, to have Lamine Yamal as your outball. Alongside Bellingham, Lamal was the outstanding player on view, teasing with pace and trickery, whilst wasting nothing.

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The Manchester City verdict is a “seismic” moment for English football with the potential to cost the club hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation and shake up the sport’s existing order.

Premier League clubs were informed on Thursday that a verdict had been reached in the case – with City understood to have been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges.

Stefan Borson, a former City adviser and the head of sport at law firm McCarthy Denning, said: “It’s seismic and a massive development in the history of English football.

“There’s no sugarcoating it – if they have been found guilty on everything, it’s very hard to see where Manchester City go from here.”

What happens next?

The Premier League refused to comment on Friday, pointing to confidentiality. City released their own statement saying the process was “ongoing”.

The next step is for the independent commission to hold a sanctions hearing in which the Premier League and City will be able to make representations. The verdict – which legal sources believe will run to “hundreds of pages” will then be published, with Borson believing it is likely to be “scathing”.

City would then be free to appeal but The i Paper has been told it could be “six to 12 months” at the earliest before the process is concluded – and an appeal (which City would almost certainly launch) could take just as long.

Would an appeal have any chance?

Borson believes the chances of an appeal being successful are “basically hopeless” and the decision is “very serious”.

“In terms of trying to appeal the factual side of things, you’re going to have a scathing decision,” he said.

“Over hundreds of pages it will say things Manchester City are not happy with and it’s very difficult to see how that is overturned by an appeal hearing.

“The appeal will say ‘We didn’t hear the original case, but a competent board of three did; it was held over 12 weeks; the parties had some of the best representation around; they were free to present their arguments; the witnesses they wanted to; and whatever documents they wanted to present’.

“Unless there’s a point of law the original body got wrong – which is extremely unlikely in my opinion – the appeal will say they’re not in a position to undermine the original hearing.”

What are City saying?

City insiders insist they are remaining calm at this stage and very little has changed in the investigation. Senior figures still cannot give anything away, as it is an ongoing legal process.

The club have pleaded their innocence throughout and have not stepped back in their pursuit of further greatness, having spent a colossal £700m on new players across the previous three transfer windows.

City have also spared no expense in assembling the finest legal minds to fight their case, with a legal bill understood to be closing in on £100m.

The i Paper has been told that some senior staff at the club are disillusioned as they were given no indication in any future planning – something City have remained a market leader in during the Sheikh Mansour era – that this verdict “was a possibility”.

Focusing on the coming season will be “tough” from here, others said.

It is understood that it is highly unlikely City will start any appeal process until after any sanctions have been announced. Only then will they take their fight with the Premier League further.

What are the potential punishments?

There is no precedent for what happens next but experts believe it is likely to be “severe” if the verdicts stand.

A huge points deduction – resulting in certain relegation – feels like the most likely outcome given the precedent of Everton being docked eight points for two breaches of PSR in the 2024-25 season.

Sources at Hill Dickinson stadium are “watching the process play out” but there has always been anger on Merseyside at the scale of their punishment compared to others.

Significant fines could also be levied, with the possibility of fines matching the prize money they won during the period. But given the scale of breaches, sporting sanctions are almost certain.

Fans and rivals appear to favour stripping City of many of their honours, with Rio Ferdinand suggesting Manchester United should be handed another Premier League title.

Which trophies did Man City win from 2009-2018?

With the teams who finished runners-up or City beat in the final in brackets.

Premier League

• 2011-12 (Manchester United)
• 2013-14 (Liverpool)
• 2017-18 (Manchester United)

FA Cup

• 2011 (Stoke City)

League Cup

• 2014 (Sunderland)
• 2016 (Liverpool)
• 2018 (Arsenal)

One source told The i Paper, “everything should be on the table”, but experts think that is unlikely.

“Stripping titles is highly unlikely where there is already precedent for points sanctions from previous breaches of the PSR rules, and financial penalties would be a more common alternative sanction,” Daniel Gore, a disputes partner at Withers LLP, said.

One Premier League source suggested that punishment could come in the form of a colossal points deduction of “something like 50 or 60 points” so that they are actually guaranteed to be relegated, but have the ignominy of being relegated rather than just demoted.

Another insider suggested a points deduction could be spread over several seasons to ensure they would not challenge for the Premier League title for many years.

Will their rivals sue them?

City could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of pounds if clubs who have missed out on Europe and titles pursue their own compensation cases.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United are among the clubs understood to have signalled their intention to do just that – and they will feel emboldened by Burnley winning a similar case against Everton (although it is being appealed).

“The fascinating element will be to see what the other clubs in both the Premier League and lower leagues do in response to any findings, in light of the decision in the Burnley vs Everton case,” Gore said.

“That case is under appeal but a precedent for damages as a result of financial breaches has been set.”

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“I wish from deep in my heart to go to the trial, the independent panel and as soon as possible they release what happened, and we will accept like we always have done,” Pep Guardiola said in August 2024. We got there in the end, Pep, you just missed it. We got the result.

Well, almost. The good news for Manchester City is that they have an appeals process. That and the fact that, according to The Athletic, they have only been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges. Small comfort? Not for anyone.

This is not a bombshell; it is the bombshell. This could be the Premier League’s Calciopoli scandal. A serial champion club has reportedly been found guilty of such serious charges that there should be no upper limit to the punishments under discussion should their appeal not succeed.

As Brian Clough famously said to Leeds United’s players: “You can throw your medals in the bin because they were won by cheating.”

But the greatest crime here does not lie in the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence that an independent panel has been sifting through for so long we have all grown a little longer in the tooth and greyer in the hair. It does not lie in what Manchester City have been found guilty of doing with their own accounts.

It’s not even the impact upon rival clubs themselves, although clearly that has never felt more painfully relevant and the prospect of further action by those outside parties who believe that they have been unduly impacted is a can of worms that I can’t quite bring myself to open just yet.

No, the greatest crime is the warping of history and our – every single person who watches the Premier League or supports one of its clubs – experience over the last 17 years. It is the ultimate Pandora’s Box moment for the biggest league in the sport that now faces serious questions. Remember that Chelsea have recently been punished for their own rule breaking.

We all know that we care too much about football. It is deeply embarrassing that how our team plays on a Saturday impacts the answer to the “How was your weekend?” question on a Monday morning. But we at least tell ourselves that, beneath all the hoopla and the hype, what we are watching is real. This isn’t soap opera, it’s sport. The result is the result.

Except now it isn’t. Friday’s news forces us to rewrite history in our minds. How could we not now? It doesn’t matter if the punishment strips City of titles, cups and records – it would surely be too messy to process officially.

Because every football supporter of every other club will be doing exactly the same. Everything we watched wasn’t real. It was built upon sand. “Aguerrrrr-no”.

That applies to the nine years over which the charges applied, but also everything that came since. If you win one title you get a trophy but also the wealth and power that makes winning the next one easier and the one after that easier still. Suddenly nothing at the Etihad Stadium is tangible at all. It is a chimera, delusion on an industrial scale.

Pull on any one strand and see how the house of cards falls down. Manchester City beat Sunderland in the 2014 EFL Cup final – did their rule-breaking forge the gap?

Sunderland missed out on Europe as a result, including its extra revenue and pulling power on players. Four years later, their fans were watching League One football. They have Europe now, but what if they never had?

The trophies Man City won from 2009-2018

With the teams who finished runners-up or City beat in the final in brackets.

Premier League

• 2011-12 (Manchester United)
• 2013-14 (Liverpool)
• 2017-18 (Manchester United)

FA Cup

• 2011 (Stoke City)

League Cup

• 2014 (Sunderland)
• 2016 (Liverpool)
• 2018 (Arsenal)

There are more strands everywhere, knock-on impacts and “I wonder what ifs”. This is the butterfly effect, except the butterfly is a herd of elephants trampling over our previous concept of who won what and why.

That is the dreadful irony to all this: the only thing worse than the uncertainty of not having a verdict is having a verdict and realising that uncertainty is now all we have.

I don’t know where we go from here, other than an appeals process that is likely to be lengthy and complicated. I understand if some don’t have the stomach for it and simply check out of caring for a while. It has been five years; it’s just too long.

But this day will be etched on the history of the Premier League, despite its victory in the case. It will be etched on the history of Manchester City because of the comprehensive and damning nature of their defeat. It is the day we wanted, the end of the beginning of the closure. But it sure doesn’t feel worthy of celebration.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: 115 charges, five seasons – Man City saga is a stain on the Premier League
• Mark Douglas: Man City’s £700m spend makes a mockery of Premier League

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Manchester City have reportedly been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges related to breaching the Premier League’s financial rules in a verdict that will send shockwaves through English football.

Two years after the case began, the independent panel that presided over the case has reached its decision – with Premier League clubs understood to have been informed at a meeting on Thursday.

No sanctions have been decided yet, and City are expected to appeal the decision, having long maintained their innocence in relation to the unprecedented charges that they breached top-flight financial rules.

Although the case is unprecedented in scale, it has been claimed that City could be relegated or stripped of titles if found guilty.

The Athletic reported on Friday that City had been found guilty of 114 charges by the panel.

City have been accused by the Premier League of failing to provide accurate financial information and details of payments to players and coaches. They have also been accused of breaches of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations and the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Manchester City said in a statement: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City FC’s position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023.

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

The Premier League refused to comment.

Fans on all sides are angry and desperate for a conclusion

By Daniel Storey, chief football writer

The impacts of the delay are drawing permanent grooves in stone. In most other scenarios, outrage fatigue would have taken over. But here’s the thing: outrage fatigue doesn’t really exist in football. Anger is self-sustaining and there is always enough to go around.

People aren’t getting less fed up as the months tick on, they’re getting more. That includes those on all sides of the affair: Manchester City supporters, rival supporters, a massive mass of the rest of us who just want it over so we can avoid watching a division caught in suspension.

Conspiracy theory noise has become the currency of the league.

And it’s exhausting. Everybody is angry because they have a firm opinion on something as yet unknowable. Everybody is conspiratorial because nobody trusts silence even when silence is appropriate. Everybody is weary because it’s been dragging on for what feels like half a lifetime.

What next? Could Man City be relegated?

A verdict will merely be the starting pistol for another prolonged battle, legal experts told The i Paper last year, with an appeal process potentially lasting several months – at least.

The length of the process could also depend on the potential punishment. With the precedent of points deductions being handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest for financial breaches, City could face a huge deduction themselves.

With regards to possible relegation, outright expulsion from the Premier League is far more “complex” and would require a vote among top-flight clubs.

“The issue of whether Manchester City might be expelled from the Premier League is a complex one,” Aaryaman Banerji, head of football governance at investment consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock, told The i Paper.

“Rule B6 of the Premier League’s Handbook stipulates that, in order to trigger the expulsion of one of its members, clubs would have to vote as part of a Special Resolution.

“This would require 15 clubs to vote in favour of expulsion. It will be instructive to see whether the Independent Commission is held to this requirement, or whether this might be worked around, so that the Commission can itself impose such a sanction.”

Read more

• Daniel Storey: 115 charges, five seasons – Man City saga is a stain on the Premier League
• Mark Douglas: Man City’s £700m spend since the 130 charges makes a mockery of Premier League
• Kat Lucas: Seven things to know before one of history’s most controversial football matches

Carlos Hurtado, a sports lawyer with Baker McKenzie, also told The i Paper that the threat to City of multiple compensation claims from rival clubs is “real and serious”.

The charges span a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018 where City won the title three times. Manchester United were twice runners-up in 2012 and 2018, while Liverpool finished second behind City in 2014.

“Retrospective compensation is something that is being considered by everybody,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire added.

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“Really uncomfortable” is the verdict from within the Irish dressing room. It is a double-header in the Nations League that pits the Republic of Ireland against Israel – twice in the next fortnight – in one of the most contentious fixtures in history.

International football has been littered with matches bearing a political undercurrent. In the 1930s, Germany played England at White Hart Lane, home to Tottenham Hotspur, and performed Nazi salutes before kick-off at a club with a traditionally large Jewish support.

East Germany later faced West Germany at the height of the Cold War; England would meet Argentina at the 1986 World Cup, just four years after the Falklands conflict.

Few games have inspired such a public backlash amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Here is why and everything to know about the matches.

Why is Israel vs Ireland controversial?

As a nation, the Republic of Ireland is noted for its strong support of the Palestinian causeF, which has been heightened since the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, which has killed an estimated 75,000 Palestinians.

Ireland defender Seamus Coleman addressed questions surrounding whether the matches should go ahead by saying he “knows the difference between right and wrong”. Manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has said some of his players had voiced opposition to the games, adding: “We are not playing with genocide, we are playing against genocide”.

The Israeli FA responded strongly with a statement on social media on Monday. It read: “We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by Hallgrimsson. We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we’re playing against the coach who embodies them.”

What is the link between Ireland and Palestine?

Many Irish people have drawn anti-colonial parallels between British occupation and the war in Gaza. In the 20th century, Britain used heavy-handed tactics in Ireland – including the deployment of the notorious Black and Tans, who were recruited by the British government into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the War of Independence and committed a series of atrocities. After the RIC was disbanded, hundreds of the paramilitary police force were sent to Mandatory Palestine (which was under British rule from 1920 to 1948).

A number of prominent political figures – including former Taioseach Simon Harris and former President Michael D Higgins have also made comparisons between the Great Hunger of the nineteenth century in Ireland, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, and the levels of starvation in Gaza.

Why isn’t Ireland’s ‘home’ leg in Dublin?

The FAI (Irish football’s governing body) decided that for security reasons, the “home” match against Israel could not be played at the Aviva Stadium. Uefa therefore gave a list of options which would also provide an unfamiliar venue for Israel for their away tie. On 27 September, Israel will “host” the Irish in Debrecen, Hungary, while the return takes place on 4 October at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola, Serbia.

Who demanded a boycott?

There has been an ongoing campaign called Stop the Game fronted by Irish Sport for Palestine, who released an open letter calling on the country’s footballers to boycott the match, accusing the Israeli government of “a brutal system of apartheid, and now, acts of genocide”. Louise Quinn, who plays for the women’s national team, was among the signatories.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Uefa risks “rubber-stamping apartheid” by allowing the games to go ahead. It said in a statement: “Sport should never be used as a public relations spectacle for states committing atrocities.”

What has the response been?

The FAI asked Uefa to ensure that the Republic of Ireland and Israel are kept apart in future draws. That was rejected because “Ireland and Israel have never been in direct conflict”. For example, Serbia and Kosovo do not play one another because of historic conflict between the two countries, but the Republic of Ireland were told the rule does not apply here.

RTE, the national broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland, will dramatically scale back its coverage and only a basic world feed will be provided by Uefa, with no half-time analysis on TV.

Could Israel be banned from international football?

Despite ongoing campaigns to ban Israel’s national team and Israeli clubs from Fifa and Uefa competitions, The i Paper has been told that such action would only have been taken if individual national FAs refused to play games – as they did with Russia within days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia has not been allowed to play at subsequent European Championships or World Cups.

More on football

Daniel Storey: I spent a day with the American billionaire obsessed with Huddersfield Town

The Journeyman: Southend United can dare to dream again

Why is sport particularly contentious?

The Palestinian FA has also taken legal action against a number of Israeli “settler” clubs who play on land internationally recognised as being illegally occupied. Hundreds of Palestinian sportspeople – including footballers – are believed to have been killed in Israeli air strikes and shootings since 2023. Palestine’s two football leagues were also halted at the end of 2023, with competitive action only returning to Gaza this month with the “Martyrs Cup”.

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