The aftermath of the alleged spitting incident at half-time. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
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'I felt that was kind of the intention to try to intimidate us and make us do something stupid'
Heimir Hallgrímsson reiterates stance that Ireland and Israel should be kept apart in future as he discusses alleged spitting incident and leaks from own camp.
An editorial note re: The 42’s reporting on the Uefa Nations League matches between Ireland and Israel is available to read here.
HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON REITERATED his belief that the Republic of Ireland and Israel should be kept apart by Uefa in future competitions.
In another fractious encounter between the two teams, a member of the Irish backroom staff, fitness coach Damien Doyle, also accused an Israeli player of spitting at him as the teams left the pitch at half time.
Hallgrímsson didn’t want to be drawn too much on the matter, except for saying that “that’s something that a disciplinary committee would probably look at.”
The Israel manager said he did not see the alleged incident while a spokesman for their football association said: “No comment. I didn’t see anything.”
When asked if he spoke to any players about it, he replied “no”.
Hallgrímsson praised his players for not reacting to provocation, Jayson Molumby was on the end of several late fouls.
The Ireland manager was clear on his stance about the two countries facing each other in future.
“No, shouldn’t. That’s not ours to decide. It’s for Uefa to decide. Obviously, there is a big support for Palestine in Ireland, not many countries support Palestine as much as Ireland does, so maybe. Maybe Uefa needs to step in and do something,” he said.
“It’s been a lot of those accidents that could have escalated. We were clever enough to stop it before it went too far. I felt that was kind of the intention to try to intimidate us and make us do something stupid. Give a big credit to the players how they handled their emotions.”
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Hallgrímsson feels this Ireland squad are “100% stronger” as a result of what they’ve gone through and that “in these times, you find your true friends, who are your true friends, who you want to work with in the future, who you trust with playing next to you.”
Hallgrímsson elaborated further on how details of the players’ voting to play Israel in Hungary 24 hours before the game was due to take place also leaked into the public domain.
“Also, these times are also good to find your enemies. It’s the best time to find your enemies. When you’re lying on the ground and people are kicking you, it’s easy to see who is trying to kick you.
“So that’s also a good thing. It was a big test on all our systems, whether it’s within our group, whether it’s the association, whether it’s the media, it was a big test. And we can definitely fix the system, our system.
“There was a lot of leakage of information. There was, for example, a closed vote, anonymous vote for the players, and it was in the papers almost in real time. So that’s something that we need to work on as a group.
“We don’t want to go to Euro finals and our team is in the papers as soon as I pick it. So there’s a lot of areas that we found here that we need to improve, and we can improve and should improve.
“From all of this, it’s not only finding your friends, it’s also to find who are your enemies and get them away from working forward. So there’s a lot of opportunities as well that come from this.”
Hallgrímsson took the time to once again praise the commitment of Finn Azaz, and expanded on the emotional toll the midfielder has faced considering his mother and grandparents are of Israeli descent.
“We spoke a lot together. It was just tough on him. I could feel it when I spoke to him. It was tough for him that we were wearing black armbands. It was tough on him that we looked down when the national anthem was sung, etc.
“It tested him more than all of us. I just felt it was better to leave him out today than play him.”
When asked if Azaz would be available for the end of the Nations League campaign in November, Hallgrímsson said: “I surely hope so. I haven’t asked, but there’s nothing that points to him quitting, absolutely. Just being here proves it to me. That proves it to me. He wants to be with us, he wants to be with us in the Euro finals in 2028, and he has shown his quality and his worth on the pitch.”
'I felt that was kind of the intention to try to intimidate us and make us do something stupid'
An editorial note re: The 42’s reporting on the Uefa Nations League matches between Ireland and Israel is available to read here.
HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON REITERATED his belief that the Republic of Ireland and Israel should be kept apart by Uefa in future competitions.
In another fractious encounter between the two teams, a member of the Irish backroom staff, fitness coach Damien Doyle, also accused an Israeli player of spitting at him as the teams left the pitch at half time.
Hallgrímsson didn’t want to be drawn too much on the matter, except for saying that “that’s something that a disciplinary committee would probably look at.”
The Israel manager said he did not see the alleged incident while a spokesman for their football association said: “No comment. I didn’t see anything.”
When asked if he spoke to any players about it, he replied “no”.
Hallgrímsson praised his players for not reacting to provocation, Jayson Molumby was on the end of several late fouls.
The Ireland manager was clear on his stance about the two countries facing each other in future.
“No, shouldn’t. That’s not ours to decide. It’s for Uefa to decide. Obviously, there is a big support for Palestine in Ireland, not many countries support Palestine as much as Ireland does, so maybe. Maybe Uefa needs to step in and do something,” he said.
“It’s been a lot of those accidents that could have escalated. We were clever enough to stop it before it went too far. I felt that was kind of the intention to try to intimidate us and make us do something stupid. Give a big credit to the players how they handled their emotions.”
Hallgrímsson feels this Ireland squad are “100% stronger” as a result of what they’ve gone through and that “in these times, you find your true friends, who are your true friends, who you want to work with in the future, who you trust with playing next to you.”
Hallgrímsson elaborated further on how details of the players’ voting to play Israel in Hungary 24 hours before the game was due to take place also leaked into the public domain.
“Also, these times are also good to find your enemies. It’s the best time to find your enemies. When you’re lying on the ground and people are kicking you, it’s easy to see who is trying to kick you.
“So that’s also a good thing. It was a big test on all our systems, whether it’s within our group, whether it’s the association, whether it’s the media, it was a big test. And we can definitely fix the system, our system.
“There was a lot of leakage of information. There was, for example, a closed vote, anonymous vote for the players, and it was in the papers almost in real time. So that’s something that we need to work on as a group.
“We don’t want to go to Euro finals and our team is in the papers as soon as I pick it. So there’s a lot of areas that we found here that we need to improve, and we can improve and should improve.
“From all of this, it’s not only finding your friends, it’s also to find who are your enemies and get them away from working forward. So there’s a lot of opportunities as well that come from this.”
Hallgrímsson took the time to once again praise the commitment of Finn Azaz, and expanded on the emotional toll the midfielder has faced considering his mother and grandparents are of Israeli descent.
“We spoke a lot together. It was just tough on him. I could feel it when I spoke to him. It was tough for him that we were wearing black armbands. It was tough on him that we looked down when the national anthem was sung, etc.
“It tested him more than all of us. I just felt it was better to leave him out today than play him.”
When asked if Azaz would be available for the end of the Nations League campaign in November, Hallgrímsson said: “I surely hope so. I haven’t asked, but there’s nothing that points to him quitting, absolutely. Just being here proves it to me. That proves it to me. He wants to be with us, he wants to be with us in the Euro finals in 2028, and he has shown his quality and his worth on the pitch.”
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