The Irish side beat Israel 3-0 in the Nations League, but the match was marked by the players' refusal to take part in the usual pre-match formalities. Heimir Hallgrimsson said after the match to RTE that his players had 'raised awareness worldwide' about the situation in Gaza.
The Irish players did not shake hands, and the Irish team bowed their heads during the playing of the Israeli national anthem. There was no exchange of flags between Ireland's Darragh Markey and the Israeli captain Manor Solom. The players wore black armbands, which the Irish Football Association (FAI) described as a gesture 'in memory of all the lives lost in the conflict in Gaza'. After scoring the third goal for Ireland, Jack McGinley removed the armband and kissed it, then kissed the club crest on his shirt.
The match was played on neutral ground in Hungary, with the Irish players being booed by a small number of Israeli fans during the warm-up. The FAI confirmed that tickets were not sold to Irish fans, although a few were seen at the stadium. The matches were played on neutral grounds as both sides were drawn into group B3 back in February.
The Irish players decided to take to the pitch after a long meeting in a hotel room in Debrecen on Saturday. Gavin Bazunu, the goalkeeper, confirmed that he had withdrawn from the squad as he felt it would be 'wrong to take part' in the match on Sunday, with the return fixture in the Serbian town of Backa Topola on 4 October. Courell stated that the vote by the players had passed 'by a significant majority'.
Hallgrimsson confirmed that Bazunu would be included in the squad for the match against Austria on Thursday, but not for the second match against Israel. 'I think he is very happy that we won the match,' said the manager. 'No one has questioned his decision. It was just the timing that was difficult for us to react to, but none of us asked him not to take his stand, and now he is flying back with us on the plane.'
When asked if the players' views on the match were taken into account when selecting the team for Sunday's game, Hallgrimsson replied: 'Absolutely not. This selection was about who we thought could give the best performance for Ireland.'
Doubts about whether the match would take place at all emerged after the Irish press conference was postponed due to a team meeting. The conference started at 14:30 British time on Saturday, more than five hours later than planned.
Calls for a boycott of matches against Israel have been ongoing since the draw for the League in February. Last November, the FAI proposed that the Union be suspended from its competitions. In May, a friendly match against Qatar was interrupted after fans threw tennis balls with the Palestinian flag onto the pitch. In June, the FA confirmed that the home match would be played without a crowd in Backa Topa, in Bačka, instead of at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, citing 'operational challenges that could affect the holding of the match in the home country'.
At an extraordinary general meeting, delegates supported the FA's proposal that the matches be played, due to concerns that a boycott would cause 'significant and lasting damage' to the association. Calls for a boycott have intensified in recent weeks. Earlier this week, more than 160 Irish athletes signed an open letter from the group Irish Sport for Palestine, calling on the team not to play.
Courell said last week that the Union had rejected the request for Ireland and Israel to be kept separate in future draws. The Israeli Football Association accused Hallgrimsson of 'ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity' after the manager said: 'We are not playing against genocide, we are playing against genocide.' On Saturday, Hallgrimsson said that was 'the wrong word I used'. The head of communications for the Israeli Football Association, Shlomi Barzel, said he would not apologise for the response of his association, but would 'withdraw the word stupid'.
Recall that the armed group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a major military offensive in Gaza.
