Irish basketball team ditches formalities after Israeli player's accusation of antisemitism

Ireland played Israel earlier today in a FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers game staged in Riva, Latvia amid much discussion as to whether or not the Irish side should boycott the game.

The Irish team had been facing calls to boycott the game - which had been postponed from its original date in November - due to the war in Gaza, prompting Basketball Ireland to issue a statement on January 25 explaining why it was going ahead with the game, namely hefty fines and the threat of an effective ban.

However, the calls for a boycott grew stronger this week after the Israel Basketball Association (IBBA) shared photos from a practice session that was attended by members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday.

Then, on Tuesday, IBBA said Israeli player Dor Sa'ar said: "It's known that they [the Irish] are quite anti-Semitic and it's no secret, and maybe that's why a strong game is expected.

"We have to show that we're better than them and win. We talk about it among ourselves. We know they don't like us and we will leave everything on the field always and in this game especially."

Basketball Ireland slammed the accusation of antisemitism as both "inflammatory and wholly inaccurate" and said it raised the matter with FIBA Europe.

On Thursday, ahead of the game, Basketball Ireland said that it had informed FIBA Europe that “as a direct result of recent comments made by Israeli players and coaching staff - including inflammatory and wholly inaccurate accusations of anti-semitism, published on official Israeli federation channels - that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents.

“This includes exchanging of gifts, and formal handshakes before or after the game, while our players will line up for the Irish national anthem by our bench, rather than centre court.

“Basketball Ireland fully supports our players in their decision.”

Indeed, the Irish team refused to shake hands at the start of the game which was played behind closed doors at 4 pm Irish time.

Ultimately, Ireland lost to Israel 87 - 53, but the Irish players were hailed by their head coach James Weldon afterward.

“I think for such a young group of players they showed incredible maturity in how they handled a very pressured week, it’s been difficult for all of us, but we kept it tight and kept it together and all I can say is that we did not back down out there today," Weldon said.

"They’re a good side, a player who played in the WNBA, all professional players. The second half was really good and we’ve got plenty to build on."

Asked about not partaking in pre-match formalities, Weldon added: “I would prefer to be talking about basketball and not this, we didn’t engage in the pre-match activities as a direct result of those unwarranted and unacceptable comments from the Israeli camp about our players.

"It was hugely disappointing, we came here for a game of basketball, we wanted to win, but didn’t come out on the right side of the result on this occasion.

"We had three international debutants in this game, we’re building a squad, so there’s positives to take from this game."

Basketball Ireland said again on Thursday that Ireland would have been fined up to €80,000 by FIBA Europe if they failed to fulfill the fixture against Israel, with an additional fine of €100,000 if the return fixture wasn't played. In addition, FIBA Europe competition rules would have seen Ireland removed from the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers and the next qualifying campaign, leading to an effective five-year ban.

Ireland’s next FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2024 Qualifier is against Latvia on November 7 in Dublin.