Ireland's soccer squad extends its dramatic ballot on the Israel fixture into a rule that every on-pitch decision needs a majority, as Micheál Martin waves off antisemitism concerns.
Ireland's soccer players followed their vote on playing Israel with a rule that every throw-in, substitution and corner now needs a majority. The first match ran nearly five hours and the opponents won by walking out. Micheál Martin insists there is nothing to see here.
"...and the corner carried fourteen to nine, with two abstentions, so we took it," said Oisín Brennan-Coyle, spokesman for the Football Association of Ireland, on Friday. He was explaining why one set piece in Dublin took longer than a papal election.
Here is what happened. Ireland's players held a last-minute vote on whether to face Israel at all. Micheál Martin, the Irish Prime Minister, told reporters the antisemitism concerns were misplaced. Fine. Then somebody in that dressing room had a thought... why stop at one vote?
The FAI has now confirmed that the squad will decide every on-pitch action by simple majority. Throw-ins. Substitutions. Whether to press high or sit back. Each gets a fourteen-minute deliberation window, a secret ballot and a count watched by a neutral steward. The referee waits.
Think about that for a second. Not one adult in the building said no. Not the manager, who has been reclassified as a "facilitator." Not the Prime Minister, who spent his Friday explaining that none of this was a problem. Nobody.
"Football has always been about participation," Brennan-Coyle said. "We simply removed the part where one man makes a decision and everyone lives with it. That part felt a bit... colonial."
The first match under the new rules ran four hours and forty minutes. A second-half penalty went to a recount after a defender claimed his slip had been folded wrong. The visiting side went home at half-time and were declared the winners by a vote of fourteen to nothing, since they were the only ones who bothered to show up for the count.
UEFA has reacted. Hendrik Vos, its head of competitions, said the body "respects the democratic tradition of the Irish game" but noted that the match clock "is not a suggestion." That is European football at full fury, folks. He may even send a letter.
Where does this end?
I'm just asking the question nobody else will... do we vote on the offside rule next? Do we vote on whether the ball is round? Because once a locker room becomes a parliament, it never goes back to being a locker room. Ask any parliament.
The BBC reported the original vote as dramatic. Dramatic is a word for a penalty shootout. This is a word for a committee that found a way to lose to an empty pitch.
Ireland's next fixture is Friday. The squad has scheduled a preliminary vote on whether to hold the vote. Sources inside the FAI expect the motion to pass, provided a quorum can be found by kickoff, and provided nobody tables an amendment on the length of the grass.
