BASKETBALL IRELAND has said its Instagram page has been permanently deleted.
The news comes following a controversial fixture between the Irish women's basketball team and their Israeli counterparts.
The game went ahead despite calls for Ireland to boycott the fixture over Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Basketball Ireland said that despite the heightened interest surrounding the game, 'nothing that has been posted on our social media channels' warrants the closure of its Instagram account.
Tense fixture
The FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualifier between Ireland and Israel was held in a neutral venue in Latvia on February 8.
Basketball Ireland agreed to fulfil the fixture, despite calls from organisations and sporting figures to boycott the match.
It said that in light of the ongoing conflict and the subsequent heightened interested on Ireland's two qualifiers with Israel, it had raised its concerns with governing body FIBA Europe.
However, the association reportedly insisted the games go ahead, with failure to do resulting in fines totalling €180,000 and expulsion from the 2025 and 2027 qualifiers.
Ahead of the game, members of the Israeli team were pictured with armed IDF soldiers, while Israeli player Dor Sa'ar said in an interview previewing the game that 'it's known that they are quite antisemitic'.
That accusation prompted Ireland's players to forego the pre-game handshake with Israel, who ultimately won the game 87-57.
Appeal
In a statement on Saturday, Basketball Ireland said it lost access to its Instagram page on Sunday, February 11.
It added that three days later, an automated message from Instagram owner Meta said the page had been permanently disabled.
"This is being appealed by Basketball Ireland, as there is no legitimate reason to do so by META," added the statement.
"Basketball Ireland is a National Governing Body, only posting about basketball in Ireland.
"Our social media pages are there to showcase our international and domestic game, from elite to grassroots level.
"Basketball Ireland has been subject to added media and social media attention in the lead-up and the aftermath of the Ireland versus Israel FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier, however nothing that has been posted on our social media channels during this time, before, or since, merits this decision by META.
"Basketball Ireland has raised this matter with Government and Sport Ireland."
The organisation said it will continue to post on its other social media channels including X, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, it has created a new Instagram page that can be found by searching @ireland.basketball
