The 42FM

Sinead and Gavin discuss in-depth the pressing issue of this week, and one that will likely make headlines all year.The FAI have been placed in the unenviable position of having to navigate a path out of the crisis which began when Ireland were drawn to play Israel in the Nations League.Some 93% of the FAI’s General Assembly have previously voted to suspend Israel from international football, yet the FAI are committed to fulfilling the fixtures.Will the games go ahead? Where will they take place? What are the potential sanctions if Ireland boycott the fixtures?Can Ireland call Uefa’s bluff? What is the worst they can do to Ireland, for making a moral stand against a country that has breached its own rules?

Sinead O’Carroll dials in from northern Italy to tell Niall Kelly about all of the sporting and political action in Milano Cortina.Several US athletes, including Amber Glenn and Hunter Hess, have spoken up against the Trump administration this week, which has led to an inevitable backlash from the US President and his Maga base. Sinead relays the atmosphere in Italy and assesses a week where Trump has been further angered at sporting occasions, his displeasure with the Bad Bunny half-time apparent to all with an internet connection. How does this bode for the rest of the Winter Olympics, and the World Cup in the summer?Also, Irish competitors have been flying the flag with honour in Italy. But is there one winter sport in which Ireland could go from zero to powerhouse status? If so, what could it be?

Sinead is off to northern Italy for the Winter Olympics this week. Today she tells Gav about her lifelong fascination with figure skating: how it started, how it developed and what she expects to see over the coming days in Milano Cortina.Also, Sinead runs the rule over Ireland’s four Winter Olympians and rates their chances.We delve into the reduced representation of 13 Russian athletes, who compete as neutrals. Is the ban fair to apolitical sportspeople from Russia - or would the presence of the Russian flag validate the Putin regime?

French rugby player Thibaud Flament last week announced that he would not be available to play Ireland in the Six Nations owing to his and his wife’s fertility treatment. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin discuss Flament’s story in the context of how the media covers matters of pregnancy, fertility and parenthood in elite sport.They illustrate how things have moved on from the days a man would be expected to miss the birth of his child but ask if the conversation has evolved far enough, explaining how we still speak differently of fatherhood as opposed to motherhood and how this reinforces wider tropes.Get in touch - sinead@thejournal.ie and gavincooney@the42.ie

Cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin, according to one headline-making judge last week.And Judge James O’Donohoe is far from alone in Ireland in feeling comfortable criticising cyclists, despite the fact that 14 were killed in our roads last year, and 45 in the past five years.This week Gav and Sinead discuss why so many people have such a negative view of cyclists, and cycling itself. Why are the misdemeanors of cyclists talked up while those of drivers in powerful vehicles are overlooked? Why was there a furore over the runaway costs of a bike shed at Leinster House, when the far more expensive car parking facilities are rarely discussed?Is cycling seen in Ireland as an anachronism - more redolent of our rustic, poorer past and not in keeping with our modern view of ourselves? Or has cycling become part of the online battleground, with the seemingly neutral activity labelled as woke by some culture warriors?How is the Irish attitude to cycling so different from other northern Europeans, in the Netherlands and Denmark for Scandinavia for example?

In these uncertain times, getting even less certain by the hour, Sinead and Gavin take a look ahead to the summer’s World Cup in America and discuss how it will play out.Most fundamentally, will it take place against a backdrop of military activity? US co-hosts Mexico and Canada have already felt the chill of Donald Trump’s threatening rhetoric, which can, as recent events show, turn to action.Even if we are in times of peace by June, the World Cup could be beset by several issues. We discuss travel bans to fans of four competing nations and how these undermine the spirit of the competition.Will Trump follow through on his threat to move games out of certain cities? Will ICE agents arrest fans gathering to watch games? And how will Trump seek to make the most of the global attention that will be available to him during the World Cup?

Midway through the World Cup cycle, Sinead and Gav assess the health of the Ireland rugby team with an eye on the perennial question: Can we win a World Cup quarter final?Optimism levels in rugby country are more subdued than usual following a lacklustre Autumn series, while the provinces, especially Leinster, are not inspiring confidence.The pair discuss what needs to happen between now and October 2027 for Ireland to break through their glass ceiling.Can Ireland blood enough exciting players to freshen up the team? Can Andy Farrell settle on his best 10? Are the lineout and scrum fixable? Is the unwritten rule that Ireland’s internationals have to play club rugby here a help or a hindrance in the modern game? Is Irish rugby suffering a Lions hangover, or is this World Cup cycle one too many for some key players?

Mo Salah’s outburst after being left on the bench during Liverpool’s draw with Leeds on Saturday means the legendary forward has probably kicked his last ball for the Reds.But is Salah right to suggest he has been thrown under the bus by the club he has served so well for eight years? Is it natural that he feels singled out when his drop in form has been replicated across Arne Slot’s expensively assembled squad?Or has the Egyptian gone too far in his comments, and failed to grasp the coldly transactional nature of professional football?Gav and Sinead get to grips with the biggest Premier League football story of the season, and in the process grapple with themes of loyalty, status, ego, envy and the challenge of succession planning in a game fraught with unforeseen and crazy events - some of which led to April’s free-scoring title-winning king of Anfield being deemed past it by September.