Irish trade union SIPTU has written to RTÉ demanding the broadcaster refuse to air the Republic of Ireland's two upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures against Israel — and has told its members at the station they won't be expected to work on the games if RTÉ pushes ahead.
The letter, sent by SIPTU Services Divisional Organiser Adrian Kane, pulls no punches. "SIPTU workers in RTÉ will not accept being put on the wrong side of history," he wrote, pointing to RTÉ's decision earlier this year to refuse broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest as a precedent for the kind of moral stand the union wants to see repeated.
RTÉ's hands are tied — at least legally
RTÉ's response was blunt: it doesn't have a choice. The broadcaster holds a rights contract that makes airing both Nations League matches mandatory. Walking away from that obligation wouldn't just affect these two games — it would put RTÉ's entire future sports rights acquisition at risk.
"Unlike the recent situation with the Eurovision Song Contest where, as a participating member, RTÉ had full agency in its decision not to participate or broadcast, the broadcast of these games is mandatory under RTÉ's rights contract," a spokesperson said.
The Eurovision comparison, which SIPTU leaned on heavily, doesn't quite hold. RTÉ was a participant in Eurovision and could opt out. Here it's a rights holder with contractual obligations to a third party. Those are fundamentally different situations, whatever the moral argument.
The October match is already moving
The FAI has already confirmed that Ireland's home fixture against Israel, scheduled for 4 October, will be shifted from the Aviva Stadium to a neutral venue. That move was clearly designed to reduce the political and logistical pressure around the game — but it hasn't quieted the calls for a full boycott.
SIPTU is also asking the Irish government and the FAI to step in and prevent both matches from going ahead entirely. Whether either body has the appetite or authority to do that is a separate question — and one neither appears keen to answer publicly right now.
RTÉ has made its position clear: "RTÉ does not have discretion to elect that these particular two matches should not be broadcast."
