Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson cut an almost frustrated figure after fielding questions before tonight's Nations League Group B3 game against Austria at Dublin's Aviva Stadium [ ]. Ordinarily, the conversation would revolve around the opposition or his own team's preparation, but this has been no ordinary international window with the fall-out from Sunday's 3-0 win over Israel, plus the chaotic build-up to that game in Debrecen still dominating discourse. On Saturday, players voted to fulfil the Israel fixtures following goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu's decision to make himself unavailable with the issue continuing to hang over the Irish camp before Sunday's behind-closed-doors return in Serbia.
Protests have continued this week with the 'Stop The Game' campaign - organised by the pressure group Irish Sport for Palestine - issuing an open letter calling for a boycott of this Sunday's game in Backa Topola due to the Israel-Gaza war. The Football Association of Ireland [FAI] has come under fire for their handling of the saga, with board members appearing before the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) Sports Committee in Dublin on Wednesday, while Hallgrimsson reflected on a "challenging time for me as a leader". "I would think the Association would learn from these events like I will learn from them," the Republic of Ireland boss said on Wednesday.
"I think we will all look back and be better afterwards, the same for the FAI. Probably, they will look back and think 'we should have done this or said this' but in real time, you tend to make some wrong decisions. "We would like to look forward and we are in a pre-match press conference before a game against Austria and we haven't spoken about football." Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has been consistent in his calls for a boycott of the Israel games.
Speaking on Virgin Media on Saturday, he said Bazunu was "feeling quite low and shunned by some of the players and by the FAI", and was not included in the players' vote that FAI CEO David Courell said passed by a "significant majority" in favour of fulfilling the Israel fixtures. Hallgrimsson would not be drawn on Kerr's comments, insisting he had not read or listened to them fully and suggested social media was a factor for the rising temperature before the Israel games. "I know he [Kerr] has been vocal and has a strong opinion, but I don't read the news and I don't be on social media, so I wouldn't be able to quote on that one," he said.
"Like I've said, [people have] strong opinions and when you have a strong opinion, you have to be able to listen to others. "It is easy to get carried away with social media but in the end, time will be our judge. Sometimes you are under pressure from social media to take a stand instead of thinking deeper." Last week, the Israel Football Association accused Hallgrimsson of "ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity" after the coach said, "we're not playing with genocide, we're playing against genocide".
The armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. Israel has repeatedly denied that it has committed genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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