A reality check that shifts the debate
Heimir Hallgrimsson has changed his tune. Ireland’s head coach rowed back on Thursday after comments he made last week about Israel. He admitted the timing was poor. The headlines his remarks sparked quickly drowned out what mattered more to him: Thursday’s game against Kosovo, a crucial one in Ireland’s Nations League group.
“That was not smart from me,” he said in his news conference. He regrets dragging the debate away from the pitch just hours before a match he sees as vital to the rest of the campaign.
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Comments that sparked a storm
Hallgrimsson had gone hard last week. “We are not playing with genocide, we are playing against genocide. We are playing against Israel, we are not playing with Israel,” he told reporters. It did not slip by unnoticed for a second.
The Israeli football association hit back straight away, calling it “nonsense, ignorance and hypocrisy”. On the other side, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin backed his manager and refused to publicly distance himself from him. That kind of open political support for a football coach is rare. It shows just how big this has become in Ireland, far beyond sport.
Kosovo first, Israel later
Ireland’s schedule explains why there is a rush to move on. The Boys in Green face Kosovo on Thursday night before meeting Israel twice later in the Nations League campaign. Both games will be played on neutral ground, in Hungary and then Serbia. A security measure that says plenty about the mood around these fixtures over the past few months.
Hallgrimsson now wants the focus back on football. His side, locked in a tight group, cannot afford to lose its way on the pitch because of a row he helped fuel. The Icelandic coach, who arrived in Ireland after the World Cup, is staking a good chunk of his credibility on the weeks ahead.
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