FAI Confirms Refunds for Season Ticket Holders Amid Controversial Fixture

The FAI will refund season ticket holders after confirming that Ireland’s upcoming home Nations League fixture against Israel will be played behind closed doors in Serbia.

Supporters who bought season tickets are being offered a choice: a straight cash refund for the value of the game, or an account credit. The amount equates to roughly one fifth of the overall season ticket price. All season ticket holders will also receive loyalty points, despite being unable to attend the match in person.

It is a gesture aimed at a fanbase that has watched the start of Ireland’s 2026-27 Nations League campaign drift away from the pitch and into a political storm.

Upcoming Fixtures

Ireland open their group away to Kosovo in Pristina on 24 September. Under normal circumstances, attention would already be fixed on that trip and the first steps of a new campaign. Instead, the conversation has been dominated by the back-to-back fixtures against Israel on 27 September and 1 October, which have been moved to neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia.

Criticism and Response

The relocation and the decision to fulfil the fixtures have drawn sustained criticism. The FAI has come under heavy pressure from the “Stop the Game” campaign, which has called for a boycott of the matches in protest at the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The association has held its line. Last month, a motion to proceed with the games passed with a 68% majority. In defending that stance, the FAI pointed to what it described as “the profound impact that non-fulfilment of UEFA fixtures would have on Irish football as a whole and its future development.”

So Ireland will play on, in empty stands far from Dublin, with supporters refunded, loyalty points banked – and the wider argument over where sport ends and politics begins still raging in the background.