Gavin Cooney

HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON HOPES to revive plans for a winter training camp primarily for League of Ireland players in January.

Hallgrimsson previously spoke of his hopes to stage a camp and some international friendlies in January of this year for LOI players and overseas players who are not regularly involved at first-team level with their clubs, but it didn’t proceed as the FAI had not budgeted for it. He regularly held these camps when he was manager of Iceland.

But with the World Cup play-offs happening in the final week of March, Hallgrimsson hopes that he will get another chance to host this camp, and revealed he discussed potential January games with some of the managers he met at yesterday’s 2026 World Cup draw in Washington.

“Hopefully that will happen, but everyone has to agree on it, the association and the opponent”, said Hallgrimsson. “Hopefully something like this will come up from being here, as the coaches are all here. All these talks start here.

“Normally [January matches] would be somewhere away, the nation would host us. It’s the logistics and timing etc. Like I said to you guys we did a lot of it in Iceland – going in January with domestic players – so there are possibilities here and we are trying to do the best deal for us.”

Should Ireland beat Czechia and then either Denmark 0r North Macedonia in Dublin, Ireland will face co-hosts Mexico, South Africa, and South Korea at the World Cup. Their first game would be against South Korea in Guadalajara on 11 June, the opening day of the World Cup. They would then face South Africa in Atlanta, Georgia on 18 June and hosts Mexico at the famed Azteca in Mexico City on 24 June.

Hallgrimsson last faced Mexico as Jamaica manager, losing 1-0 in the group phase of the 2024 Copa America. Across five prior meetings with Mexico during his time in charge of Jamaica and his native Iceland, Hallgrimsson has lost four and drawn once. He has not faced the other two opponents in an official international game.

“All the teams are beatable for us”, said Hallgrimsson. “I wouldn’t say there is a favourite in the group, Mexico are the highest ranked if I am right, but it is a good group if we qualify.

“There will be heat there for sure, there are no air conditioned stadiums in Mexico. We haven’t started thinking about that yet. Let’s focus on Czech Republic and hopefully a game after that.”

Hallgrimsson was at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC for a marathon draw event that lasted for more than two hours, with the preamble to the draw including Gianni Infantino’s awarding of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize to Donald Trump, along with performances from Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger, and Lauryn Hill. The event concluded with a rendition of YMCA by the Village People.

“It is unlike the draws I have done in the past, whether it was the Euros or the World Cup with Iceland or the Gold Cup and Copa America with Jamaica”, said Hallgrimsson. “This was more of a show than a draw. I would fancy football first than show first. It was maybe show first and football second which is not how it should be in a World Cup draw.”