‘This is our club, not yours’: How a Socceroo’s Palestine support sparked angst in Germany

When Socceroo Jackson Irvine signed for FC St Pauli four years ago, it was a match made in heaven between a German club built on left-wing ideals and a player who embodies them.

With his long hair, painted fingernails, tattooed arms and penchant for vintage jerseys, Irvine looked every bit a protoypical St Pauli player – and more importantly, he thought, spoke and acted like one, too.

A proud unionist who describes himself as a “social advocate” and “cultural icon” on his personal website, Irvine is co-president of Australia’s players union and sits on the global player council of FIFPro. He also hosts a fortnightly radio show in Hamburg, hosted and “curated” an afternoon of music at the Reeperbahn Festival last month, and models for fashion labels – all things which dovetail perfectly with St Pauli’s alternative vibe.

Appointed club captain ahead of the 2023-24 season, Irvine played a key role in St Pauli’s promotion to the Bundesliga, and then helped them stave off relegation last term; at one stage, until his season-ending foot injury, he led Germany’s top flight for distance covered and intensive runs, and had played every minute of every match.

The 32-year-old gave credit for his career-best form to the hardline methods of Socceroos coach Tony Popovic, saying his high-performance demands enabled him to get more out of his body.

Irvine is expected to be part of Popovic’s squad to be named on Friday for Australia’s friendlies against Venezuela and Colombia, which will be his first call-up since March.

But at club level, he is at a crossroads – primarily for reasons that have nothing to do with football.

It all started in June, when Irvine wore an FC Palestina shirt at a music festival. FC Palestina is not a real team, but a fashion brand which sells soccer-style jerseys and donates a percentage of profits to charities and projects that directly support the people of Palestine. It’s a cause Irvine regularly highlights through his social media.

The shirt Irvine donned is commonly seen on the streets of Sydney, and features a stylised number 11, with the numbers shaped like the outline of historical Palestine, which includes territory that is now the State of Israel.

In few places is the question of Israel and Palestine more fraught than in Germany, where history has heightened sensitivities and narrowed the space for nuance; there, acts that might be seen elsewhere as expressions of solidarity can take on a vastly different meaning.

Thus, a firestorm erupted around Irvine, who was immediately accused by some critics – because of his allegedly “antisemitic” shirt, because he enjoys bands which have allegedly expressed solidarity with terror group Hamas, and because of some of the pro-Palestine content he has shared on his social media channels – of believing that Israel had no right to exist.

When he defended himself and said those accusations were not only wrong, but “deeply offensive and hurtful”, he was then accused of playing the victim, and criticised further for not apologising – and for not using his profile to draw attention to the suffering caused by the war in Gaza in the correct way.

With tensions inflamed between Irvine and the St Pauli hierarchy, the situation got uglier when René Born, a member of the club’s supervisory board – an oversight body that sits above management, responsible for safeguarding the club’s principles and signing off on major strategic decisions – criticised him directly through an Instagram post of Irvine’s wife, Jemilla Pir.

“This is our club, not yours,” Born commented. “You’ll be gone in a few months playing somewhere else for one euro more. We’ll always be here when you’re nothing more than a footnote.”

That triggered an apology from Born to Irvine – but when Irvine spoke about Born’s post on an ABC podcast appearance a few weeks ago, describing his conduct as “wild” and an attempt to “intimidate me from [his] position of power”, he was again criticised for not taking the opportunity to clarify his stance on Israel.

He has not spoken publicly about the matter since; the club never has.

All of this unfolded as Irvine was recovering from surgery to repair the stress fracture in his foot which ended his 2024-25 season. In his absence, teammates James Sands and Joel Chima Fujita have established themselves as St Pauli’s first-choice midfield combination, raising questions about whether Irvine might have to look elsewhere for minutes ahead of the World Cup – a previously unimaginable prospect, given his hitherto unimpeachable status at the club.

Having now mounted a full recovery, Irvine has been restricted to 10 minutes off the bench this season, while being an unused substitute on three occasions; in contrast, when it comes to the Socceroos, he remains a pivotal figure.

Though the controversy has died down, it hovers in the background, and remains a topic of hot debate. It’s impossible to know to what extent it has contributed to St Pauli’s poor form in the Bundesliga, but it can’t have helped.

Sources close to Irvine, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, say although he has felt hung out to dry by the club, he is reluctant to consider a move away from St Pauli, given the way he and his wife have embedded themselves into the community, and is determined to win back his spot in their XI.

A swift return is not out of the question, particularly if a spell with the Socceroos can bring him closer to match fitness.

Importantly, Irvine continues to retain the support of not only the majority of St Pauli fans, but his teammates.

St Pauli defender Hauke Wahl spoke this week of the “extreme energy” that Irvine’s sheer presence provides.

“He’s an absolute spokesperson in the team, someone everyone listens to,” he said. “He’s our captain.”