{"id":702011,"date":"2026-05-29T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702011\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:52:09","slug":"everybody-has-a-right-to-protest-heimir-hallgrimsson-unfazed-by-tennis-ball-protest-during-qatar-win-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702011\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everybody has a right to protest\u2019: Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson unfazed by tennis ball protest during Qatar win \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republic of Ireland<\/a> manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> was torn between respecting the right of fans to protest the visit of Israel to the Aviva Stadium for a Nations League match on October 4th and the disruption it caused during Ireland\u2019s 1-0 win over Qatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has a right to protest,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson after Thursday\u2019s friendly at the Aviva. \u201cIt just kills a game. If they want to destroy the game for us then, so be it. Obviously it\u2019s not fun to see, especially for us, who are trying to think about the football side.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Debutant Jaden Umeh gives life to Ireland in humdrum Qatar friendlyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There were three incidents, in the 10th, 20th and 30th minutes when fans on the west upper tier of the stadium flung tennis balls, branded with \u2018Stop the Game\u2019, on to the pitch in protest over the FAI<\/a>\u2019s decision to fulfil the fixture against Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t bother me much,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe might have liked the protest in the second half when we would have liked to kill the game. Everybody has a right to protest, but thinking about the football side, it is not fun to watch a game that needs to be stopped again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InternationalInternational Friendly, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 28\/5\/2026
\nRepublic of Ireland vs Qatar
\nIreland\u2019s Seamus Coleman surrounded by tennis balls thrown onto the pitch
\nMandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/Ryan Byrne <\/p>\n

The protest was led by a group called \u2018The League of Ireland fans for Palestine,\u2019 which released a statement after Thursday\u2019s game noting the \u201cslaughter of more than 1,000 athletes and coaches, including at least 421 football players, in Gaza since October 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement added: \u201cWe took this action at the Aviva tonight to show the FAI and the Government we are serious about stopping the autumn matches [against Israel]. This campaign is only getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jack Moylan\u2019s straight red card by referee Jamie Robinson for catching Jassem Gaber\u2019s foot in a tackle before half-time, Hallgr\u00edmsson said: \u201cI thought it was just a wrong decision, a mistake from the referee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all make mistakes but it was costly for Jack who was having a really good first-half, leading the pressure on our left side. We locked Qatar in, Jack, Scalesy [Liam Scales] and Troy [Parrott] put pressure on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big loss for us but we opted to keep the back five so it was a tough shift for Seamie [Coleman] and [Liam] Scalesy up and down. We were disciplined, not chasing them all over, and focused, only jumping when we needed to. It was a good test, if it happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson was torn between respecting the right of fans to protest the visit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,90970,90969,85,747],"class_list":["post-702011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}