Thanks to L’Orient Le Jour, Bambi learned that “the Irish players voted by a majority to play the two scheduled Nations League matches against Israel—despite some players’ desire to boycott them in protest against the war of annihilation Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip—the Irish federation announced on Saturday” (https://tinyurl.com/5ypa4yvt). It seems that a player decided to withdraw fro the team because of the forthcoming games (https://tinyurl.com/5ypa4yvt).
Bravo to the Irish soccer team for its commitment to soccer. It would have been sad to lose sight of its mission because of politics. Thankfully, worldwide fans can now have the chance to enjoy watching soccer games. Many of these soccer lovers are located in both Israel and Palestine as well as in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia , Yemen, UAE, and all the troubled region. They will now have the chance to enjoy watching games.
Related to this Irish development, the Israel Football Association stated that it is pleased because “soccer has won” (https://tinyurl.com/mryspsw7). Bambi, who loves soccer, can only agree with this statement.
May soccer unite AND entertain everyone. May this beautiful sport allow us to take a break from war while inspiring us to remain professional, with each other, despite our different worldviews or personal political preference.
