Heimir Hallgrimsson has signed a new contract to remain as Republic of Ireland boss until the end of the Euro 2028 qualification cycle.<\/p>\n
Hallgrimsson revealed the new deal during the squad announcement<\/a> for the World Cup play-off with Czechia this afternoon.<\/p>\n He said the decision was made to ensure full focus remains on the upcoming fixtures but also to secure the long-term future of the team.<\/p>\n Speaking to RT\u00c9 Sport, he also revealed it was the FAI’s eagerness that made the deal happen now rather than after the play-offs: “We always had open and honest discussions about the future. I just didn’t think it was the correct time to do it earlier.<\/p>\n “I said I wanted to do it after the qualification. It was a big pressure from the association to do it before these play-off matches. I always felt comfortable. I think we are building something. I like the project and hopefully we can do it and I can do it, staying in the job.”<\/p>\n Hallgrimsson’s time in the hot seat was transformed by wins over Portugal and Hungary that led to reaching the play-offs next week.<\/p>\n Ireland secured five competitive wins in 2025 – the first time this has been achieved in 15 years.<\/p>\n Regardless of what happens in the World Cup cycle, Ireland could automatically qualify for Euro 2028 as a co-host, with chances to reach the tournament dramatically increased.<\/p>\n The Ireland boss said: “I am incredibly proud and delighted to commit my future. I have always said that we are on a journey together \u2014 the players, the staff, and our incredible supporters.<\/p>\n “I can see the real progress we are making and the huge potential in this group, so it was an easy decision for me to make.<\/p>\n “Signing this now, before the play-offs, is a statement of our shared belief and allows us to focus 100% on the massive task ahead of us in March without any distractions.<\/p>\n “I really believe that we are on a continuous journey in the right direction and I’d like to thank the association for showing their belief in me to take the team forward.”<\/p>\n John O’Shea is yet to pen a new deal but Hallgrimsson stated that the assistant is eager to remain in place.<\/p>\n \n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Watch Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player from 7pm on Thursday, 26 March. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app or listen to commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heimir Hallgrimsson has signed a new contract to remain as Republic of Ireland boss until the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-354643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354643","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=354643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}