As of: October 13, 2025 11:57 a.m
What seemed like great love for years is increasingly becoming a huge burden: FC St. Pauli’s relationship with its captain Jackson Irvine. It’s about his pro-Palestine stance and the comments of a supervisory board. Now the Australian has spoken publicly for the first time.
In an interview with the TV station ABC from his home country of Australia, Irvine also defended himself against the comments made by a St. Pauli supervisory board on social media. “To get a message like that from a person who is in that position was of course deeply hurtful,” said the currently injured midfielder. “We certainly hope that something will be done about it.”
The 32-year-old Australian has shown a clearly pro-Palestinian stance in the Middle East conflict, which goes too far for some in the club and also fans of FC St. Pauli. At Irvine they miss a clear commitment to Israel’s right to exist, which is historically important for St. Pauli and is also expressed in the long-standing fan friendship with the Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Conflict between Irvine’s wife and Supervisor Born
René Born, a member of the supervisory board of the Bundesliga soccer club, had published critical comments on an Instagram post by Irvine’s wife Jemilla Pir. These comments were later deleted.
Born had expressed his displeasure with the player’s posing for his wife’s fashion label. “Nobody is bigger than the club,” it said. And: “This is our club, not yours. You will be gone in a few months and play somewhere else for a euro more. We will always be here while you are nothing more than a footnote.”
Irvine has long been a St. Pauli icon
Irvine has been playing for Hamburg since 2021. Actually, the unanimous opinion was that the Australian and the Kiezkickers had looked for each other and found each other. Because the national player quickly became important for the club and its captain, not only on the pitch.
The 32-year-old also made exclamation marks off the pitch that the club and its fans liked: not least as a trade unionist or LGTBQ activist. And Irvine also became the face of the club with his long hair with changing colors, his beard and his outfits.
The relationship between club and captain has been broken since the summer
But there had already been a first scandal in the summer because in a photo on social networks he was wearing a T-shirt that said “FC Palestine” and a stylized map section on which Israel had been replaced by the state of Palestine could be seen. This resulted in accusations of anti-Semitism.
Irvine had rejected this as “deeply offensive and hurtful”. Otherwise, he did not take advantage of the opportunity to correct a wrong impression – also to the displeasure of some club supporters.
Irvine hopes “this whole thing can be resolved”
The great identification figure of the past few years would like to repair the relationship with his club, as he said in an interview with ABC. “I hope the whole thing can be resolved. It’s not something you want to deal with, especially when you’re coming back from injury,” he explained.
Irvine has yet to play a game this season after undergoing foot surgery. Hamburg are under pressure in the Bundesliga after three defeats in a row. On Sunday they welcome TSG Hoffenheim at Millerntor (5.30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter).
