Kenny Cunningham, the legendary former Ireland defender, has waded into the controversy surrounding his country's Nations League matches against Israel, arguing this week that the home fixture should have been played in Dublin rather than shipped off to a neutral venue. Cunningham said he would have welcomed the sight of Israel's national team walking onto the pitch at Aviva Stadium, with Irish fans standing to honor the Israeli anthem.
"I think the games should go ahead, and I think the home game should have gone ahead in Dublin. That's my opinion," Cunningham said. He was referring to the Irish federation's decision to relocate the match against Israel to Bačka Topola in Serbia, a move officials attributed to "operational challenges" that threatened to disrupt the game if it were held in Ireland. Cunningham didn't mince words.
Kenny Cunningham says FAI should have hosted Israel game in Aviva Stadium.https://t.co/IR7VROrFgX
— Neil O'Riordan (@noriordan) September 7, 2026
"I think it would be a good thing to see the Israeli national anthem respected inside the Aviva Stadium because that for me would send a signal, maybe from the Irish people to the Israeli people who have suffered as well in this conflict," Cunningham said, adding that honoring the anthem inside the stadium would have carried real weight after October 7.
Cunningham didn't shy away from the political tension surrounding the fixture, but he pushed back on the idea that canceling or relocating the match would change anything. "We know where people stand. I don't think canceling the game advances the argument," he said, adding that criticism of Israeli government policy shouldn't be conflated with hostility toward the Israeli people or their team.
"On a human level, we're actually together here," Cunningham said. "There are politicians who make decisions, but truly, between the Israeli people and the Irish people, there is a degree of human-level understanding about what happened." He went further still, arguing that Irish fans are capable of drawing that distinction themselves. "The Irish public can show respect to the Israeli people, some of whom may even agree to some extent with the views of the Irish people," he said.
Ireland's home match against Israel will go ahead on October 4 in Bačka Topola, and will be played without fans watchin. The teams' first meeting is set for September 27 in Debrecen, Hungary, also on neutral ground.
Looking past the politics, Cunningham, who previously played for Ireland himself, also weighed in on the squad's on-field prospects heading into the Nations League campaign and Euro 2028 qualifying. He urged coach Heimir Hallgrímsson to find a way to get both senior strikers, Troy Parrott and Evan Ferguson, on the field together.
