The Republic of Ireland’s press conference on the eve of their second Nations League meeting with Israel was cut short in Backa Topola, Serbia, on Saturday after the head coach, Heimir Hallgrimsson, was asked political questions by Israeli journalists.
Ireland go into Sunday’s return leg after beating Israel 3-0 in Hungary on Tuesday, a match played after a turbulent buildup in which the Irish squad voted to fulfil the fixture despite unease within the team over the war in Gaza. During that game the Irish players wore armbands and pointedly lowered their heads while the Israeli national anthem played, and there were no handshakes between the captains before kick-off.
The second fixture is being staged in Backa Topola after the Football Association of Ireland refused to host the match at home for security reasons. The build-up had already been strained: Israeli authorities condemned the actions of the Irish players in the first game, with the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, accusing Dublin of being on “the wrong side of history”.
Tension then spilled into Saturday’s media briefing. One reporter questioned Hallgrimsson about an incident on Wednesday during a Flydubai flight from the UAE to Israel, saying: “What do you say about the people that you support? Their ideology is based on murder. Just this week, one of them tried to kill 170 Israeli passengers, including 27 innocent children and thousands of others.” An Irish press officer responded: “We are not doing any questions like this today. We are doing football questions.”
A second journalist then addressed the Ireland manager directly, saying: “Your players call our players monkeys during the match …” The question was immediately interrupted by an FAI official who repeatedly insisted “that is completely untrue”, while the microphone was taken away from the reporter. “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me,” the journalist exclaimed, as the Irish delegation brought the press conference to an abrupt end.
Hallgrimsson had struck a more conciliatory note, saying that simply emerging from the occasion intact would count as a significant achievement. “Surviving this, coming out of it together as one would be a massive win for me. That is coming from my heart,” he said. “All the challenges that this team has gone through, all the criticism. Just surviving as a group after this game, that would be a big win for me and for this group, for the association. There’s been a lot of emotions from the people in Ireland about this, and obviously that affects the players as well.”
The Ireland manager added that his staff had tried to keep the squad focused on football rather than the surrounding noise. “We want to do good, but it’s always going to be a challenge when the environment is as noisy as it is. So we try to focus on the football side, and we’ve done a lot of things to help in that area,” he said.
Hallgrimsson also revealed a new pre-match routine introduced in recent games, in which players and staff gather for a prayer and a huddle before taking the pitch. “Conor Coventry has taken that part, so he is now called Brother Coventry in the squad,” he said. “But it’s really good when you go into a high-intensity and big-pressure game like we’ve been doing, to start the game with cool heads.”