Activists call for Israeli team’s removal from Limerick World Ultimate Club Championships

Activists are pressing for the removal of New Age from the 2026 World Ultimate Club Championships in Limerick, where the World Flying Disc Federation plans to stage its premier club event from 15 August to 22 August at the University of Limerick. The dispute has pushed one of ultimate’s biggest international tournaments into a wider argument over politics, eligibility and the sport’s long-standing claim to inclusion.

New Age is based in central Israel and is part of the Israeli Flying Disc Association, a body that has publicly expressed support for Israel’s war on Gaza and organized tournaments for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. Those links have become the focal point of the campaign against the team’s participation, with critics arguing that a club tied to those institutions should not appear at a championship that WFDF presents as its top club competition, held every four years.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has circulated an action call titled No team from genocidal Israel at the WUCC Frisbee Championships in Limerick, putting direct pressure on organizers before the tournament begins. The campaign has made the Limerick event a target for protest because WFDF has already confirmed the host city and venue, giving activists a fixed date and place around which to organize.

The controversy has also reached Irish ultimate clubs. On 27 July 2026, Ranelagh Ultimate vowed to boycott matches with New Age at the Limerick tournament, adding a local sporting flashpoint to the wider political row. The BDS Movement later posted that Palestinians welcomed news that two Irish ultimate frisbee teams, Ranelagh Ultimate and XVI Ultimate, were refusing to compete against New Age Ultimate at the World Ultimate Club Championships in Limerick in August 2026.

WFDF’s own structure gives the dispute added weight. The federation says WUCC club teams are endorsed by their national federations, which makes entry into the event dependent on the sport’s governing framework rather than on a simple open registration. That leaves organizers facing a test of how far ultimate’s institutions will go when a championship built around spirit of the game and international exchange becomes the subject of calls for exclusion.