Ireland coach wants UEFA to keep team apart from Israel after contentious games

Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrímsson wants UEFA to keep Ireland and Israel apart in future competitions after their contentious Nations League games.

The teams drew 1-1 in Ireland’s “home” game in Backa Topola, Serbia on Sunday, a week after Ireland’s 3-0 win in Israel’s “home” game in Debrecen, Hungary.

The buildup to both matches was fraught, with the Ireland players coming under pressure not to play the games because of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The enmity between the sides grew after the Irish players wore black armbands and bowed their heads during the Israeli national anthem before the first match. They repeated the gesture for the second match, when the Israel players wore black armbands for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Hallgrímsson told Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ afterward that he thinks UEFA should keep the sides apart in future.

“There is obviously a big support for Palestine in Ireland. There are not many countries that support Palestine as much as Ireland does,” Hallgrímsson said. “I wouldn’t wish any national team to go through what we have gone through these two weeks, so maybe UEFA just needs to step in and do something.”

Contentious pairing

Calls in Ireland to boycott the games against Israel started as soon as the Nations League draw pitted the countries against each other in February. Israel’s visit to Dublin would likely have triggered large protests and posed a major security challenge for the local police.

The FAI, which had filed a motion the previous November calling on UEFA to ban Israel from club and international competitions, resisted calls for a boycott, arguing the team could be hit with punishing sanctions by UEFA. Ireland is co-hosting the 2028 European Championship with England, Wales and Scotland.

In June the FAI said it was moving Ireland’s home game to Serbia for “operational reasons” and that no fans would be present.

Israel was already playing its home games in Hungary because of the war.

Damaged relations

Relations between Ireland and Israel will not have improved following their meetings on the field. Tempers boiled over at times Sunday and there was a clash before halftime when Ireland fitness coach Damien Doyle said he was spat at by an Israeli player.

“There’s been a lot of those incidents that could have escalated,” Hallgrímsson said. “We were clever enough to stop it before it went too far. I felt it was kind of the intention to try to intimidate us and make us do something stupid.”

An Israeli journalist stated at the pre-match press conference the day before that the Irish players had called the Israeli players “monkeys” during the previous match, leading to an immediate rebuke from Irish communications officer Kieran Crowley, who said it was “a lie” and ended the press conference.

Ireland forward Adam Idah, who is Black, was allegedly racially abused by a small number of Israeli fans present during the first match.

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