Heimir Hallgrimsson cut an almost frustrated figure as he faced the media before the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League Group B3 game against Austria at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, a match that kicks off at 19:45 BST. Ordinarily the questions would have concerned the opposition or his own side’s preparation, but this has been no ordinary international window: the fall-out from the 3-0 win over Israel and the chaotic build-up to that game in Debrecen continue to dominate the conversation.
The Ireland manager accepted that lessons need to be taken from the sequence of events. “I would think the Association would learn from these events like I will learn from them,” he said. “I think we will all look back and be better afterwards, the same for the FAI. Probably, they will look back and think ‘we should have done this or said this’ but in real time, you tend to make some wrong decisions.” He added that he would have preferred to be discussing football: “We would like to look forward and we are in a pre-match press conference before a game against Austria and we haven’t spoken about football.”
The background to that frustration stretches back across the window. On Saturday, the players voted to fulfil the Israel fixtures after goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu decided to make himself unavailable, an issue that continued to hang over the Irish camp before Sunday’s behind-closed-doors return in Serbia. Protests have continued this week, with the ‘Stop The Game’ campaign — organised by the pressure group Irish Sport for Palestine — issuing an open letter calling for a boycott of Sunday’s game in Backa Topola because of the Israel-Gaza war. The Football Association of Ireland has come under fire for its handling of the saga, with board members appearing before the Oireachtas Sports Committee in Dublin on Wednesday, and Hallgrimsson described the period as a “challenging time for me as a leader”.
Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has been consistent in calling for a boycott of the Israel games. Speaking on Virgin Media on Saturday, he said Bazunu was “feeling quite low and shunned by some of the players and by the FAI”, and that the goalkeeper was not included in the players’ vote that FAI CEO David Courell said passed by a “significant majority” in favour of fulfilling the Israel fixtures. Hallgrimsson declined to be drawn on Kerr’s remarks, saying he had not read or listened to them in full, and suggested social media had played a part in raising the temperature around the fixtures. “I know he has been vocal and has a strong opinion, but I don’t read the news and I don’t be on social media, so I wouldn’t be able to quote on that one,” he said. “Like I’ve said, people have strong opinions and when you have a strong opinion, you have to be able to listen to others. It is easy to get carried away with social media but in the end, time will be our judge. Sometimes you are under pressure from social media to take a stand instead of thinking deeper.”
Hallgrimsson has also been engaged in a public dispute with the Israel Football Association, which last week accused him of “ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity” after the coach said, “we’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide”. The wider conflict forms the backdrop to that exchange: the armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, and Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza in response, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. Israel has repeatedly denied that it has committed genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity, saying its military operations in Gaza have been conducted in self-defence and in accordance with international law.
Reflecting on his own position, the Ireland manager drew a distinction between private opinion and public responsibility. “It’s one thing to have a personal opinion and then it’s another thing to be the leader of a group,” he said. “We need to take everything into consideration when we pick a team, when we talk about a squad, talk about subjects. I have been drawn into a political venue and I’m not an expert in politics, so this is learning for me, learning as a coach, learning as a leader and as a human being.” He said there would be time for reflection once the window is over, but that his immediate focus is the Austria match. “There is a lot we have gone through when we will reflect on when all of this is finished and that is why I’m trying to focus on football now as that’s my job. Then I can reflect on how I am as a human being and a leader.”