Ireland cut short news conference before Israel game

• AFP, BACKA TOPOLA, Serbia

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The Republic of Ireland’s news conference on Saturday on the eve of their second UEFA Nations League match against Israel in Serbia was cut short as head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson fielded questions from Israeli journalists.

Ireland on Tuesday last week beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match following a turbulent build-up in which the Irish players voted to fulfil the fixture despite unease among the team over the war in Gaza.

During that match the Irish players wore armbands and pointedly lowered their heads while the Israeli national anthem played. There were no handshakes between the captains before kick-off.

Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson speaks during a news conference ahead of their UEFA Nations League match against Israel in Backa Topola, Serbia, on Saturday.

Photo: AP

The return leg was to take place after press time last night in Backa Topola, Serbia, after the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) refused to host the match at home for security reasons.

On Saturday, one journalist asked Hallgrimsson for his thoughts about an incident on Wednesday last week when an Indian pilot was attacked by the copilot during a Flydubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, which Emirati judicial authorities and Israeli officials have described as a “terrorist act.”

“What do you say about the people that you support? Their ideology is based on murder,” the journalist said. “Just this week, one of them tried to kill 170 Israeli passengers, including 27 innocent children and thousands of others.”

An Irish team press officer intervened, saying: “We are not doing any questions like this today. We are doing football questions.”

Another journalist then addressed the Ireland manager, saying: “Your players call our players monkeys during the match...,” only to be immediately interrupted by an FAI official repeatedly insisting “that is completely untrue,” while the microphone was taken away from the reporter.

The Irish delegation then brought the news conference to an abrupt end.

Israeli authorities have condemned the actions taken by the Irish team in the first game, with Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar accusing Dublin of being on “the wrong side of history.”

“Surviving this, coming out of it together as one would be a massive win for me. That is coming from my heart,” Hallgrimsson told journalists on Saturday. “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,” he said. “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.”

Israel coach Ran Ben Shimon said he was not “dealing with any politics” in his news conference ahead of the game.

“My opinion about that is that I need to keep my players’ focus on the game. I didn’t let anything, any emotion about it, to penetrate our squad,” he said. “I want my players to come to the game with the football knowledge and the solutions for what’s going to happen on the pitch. I’m not dealing with any politics now. I want the team to be much better in tactical matters, in their approach to the game.”

“And this is my only focus. I’m not going to respond to anything not connected to football at this stage,” he added.