{"id":294923,"date":"2026-02-12T22:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/294923\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:07:07","slug":"heimir-hallgrimsson-remains-positive-about-ireland-contract-extension-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/294923\/","title":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson remains \u2018positive\u2019 about Ireland contract extension \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> looked healthy and tanned when he stalled in the mixed zone inside a giant auditorium on the outskirts of Brussels. <\/p>\n

The Republic of Ireland<\/a> had just landed the most controversial Nations League<\/a> draw imaginable when Patrick Vieira picked out Israel from the glass bowl to go along with Austria and Kosovo. <\/p>\n

There was a collective gasp from 54 of Uefa\u2019s 55 member nations that were invited to the Belgian capital. Russia were the only absentee as they remain banned from international football since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Everyone else seemed instantly aware that last November the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> formally called for Israel to follow the Russian football federation into exile. <\/p>\n

The Uefa Congress on Thursday morning did not spend a single second discussing the Irish motion to ban Israel, while the FAI leadership of David Courell and Paul Cooke avoided the microphones, which left Hallgr\u00edmsson holding the can. <\/p>\n

The 58-year-old was unmoved by the flow of questions about thorny political issues before providing the clearest indication that he would sign a two-year contract extension to guide Ireland into Euro 2028. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment things look good and positive, so I\u2019d like to stay where I am wanted, and I\u2019d like to stay where there\u2019s a good atmosphere,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re improving a lot of things. But obviously we\u2019d like to do more in qualifying for tournaments. The talks are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u201d being Ireland goalkeeper coach Gudmundur Hreidarsson and his two assistant coaches John O\u2019Shea and Paddy McCarthy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in a good process. Just positive talks. But we\u2019re not in a hurry to sign. I expect to be the coach until after the World Cup at least. Hopefully that will be mid-July. Whatever happens after this, we\u2019re having good talks. So I\u2019m not worried about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may have been lost in all the euphoria following Troy Parrott\u2019s hat-trick in Budapest last November, when Ireland beat Hungary to secure a World Cup playoff against the Czech Republic on March 26th, but Hallgr\u00edmsson has stated from the outset that his team would qualify for the tournament. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland to face Qatar and Canada in pre-World Cup friendliesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMy contract ends when this cycle finishes. So we\u2019ve already started talking about the next steps. Just positive, relaxed conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you prefer to have it signed before the playoffs? \u201cNo, I don\u2019t need it. I\u2019m confident that they want to keep me. But I really want them to want me. So let\u2019s say after the games, we\u2019ll see how the atmosphere is, how much appetite it is for me to stay on for them. But it\u2019s all positive. I know they like to keep me at this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it changes, like I\u2019ve said before, if I\u2019m not wanted, then so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel moved past Hallgr\u00edmsson and a wave of reporters turned their recording devices to the England manager, who just signed a two-year extension to keep the German in his adopted country until Euro 2028. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot written about other things than football,\u201d Hallgr\u00edmsson added, \u201cbut I need to be focused on the players and on the football side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson looked healthy and tanned when he stalled in the mixed zone inside a giant auditorium on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13446,4700,61,60,59269,43,1842],"class_list":["post-294923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}