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Israeli FA criticises Ireland’s football coach over ‘genocide’ comments
Tensions have risen ahead of the UEFA Nation's League Fixtures between the two countries, with a concerted campaign in Ireland for their team to withdraw rather than playing Israel
The Israeli Football Association has described comments made by Ireland men’s team coach as “stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy”, after he described an upcoming international match as “playing against genocide”.
Heimir Hallgrimsson, the Irish football team’s manager, made his comments last week after announcing the squad selection for the Nation’s League fixture, the first leg of which is due to played on Sunday.
“We are not playing with genocide; we are playing against genocide,” Hallgrimsson, who previously managed Iceland, said. “We are playing against Israel; we are not playing with Israel.”
Hallgrimsson has previously called for Israel to be banned from international competition. Responding to the latest comments, the Israeli FA posted a message on social media, saying: “We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by Ireland football’s team coach.
“We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, We’re playing against the coach who embodies them.”
Ireland has become notorious for its anti-Israel stance since 7 October 2023, with the Israeli embassy in Dublin closing in December 2024 due to what the Israeli government described as “the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”. In July, Ireland’s FA officially endorsed a motion at its general assembly for the football team to play its fixtures against Israel, with 75 votes for, 32 against and three abstentions. If Ireland failed to fulfil its UEFA fixtures it risked facing stiff financial penalties. Despite this, the country’s FA has faced considerable pressure from within the country to withdraw from the games, with more than 120 Irish athletes signing an open letter on Monday calling on the team not to play. The match which should have been played in Israel was moved abroad to Hungary for security reasons – but so was the match which should have been played in Ireland, which will now take place in Serbia.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s official broadcaster, RTE, will broadcast the games as it has a contractual obligation to do so, but it will not host a studio presentation as is usual for international games and will not provide a commentator, with the commentating instead being sourced from an international feed.
Ireland played Qatar, notorious for modern slavery and its criminalisation homosexuality earlier this year – the only protests in connection to that game were those connected to the games later in the year against Israel. Nor were there any significant protests against Ireland’s cricket fixtures against Afghanistan last month, despite the Taliban’s regime extreme suppression of the rights of women.
On Friday, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, David Courell, said that UEFA had rejected a request from the Irish FA to keep the two nations apart in future draws.
“The answer I got was very clear”, Courrell said.
“That would not be possible, because Ireland and Israel have never been in direct conflict. That was an answer that I took at face value.”
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