{"id":644608,"date":"2026-10-04T15:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644608\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T15:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:28:12","slug":"completely-untrue-ireland-press-conference-halted-after-israel-racism-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644608\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Completely untrue\u2019: Ireland press conference halted after Israel racism allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson walked out of his pre-match press conference after an Israeli journalist accused his players of making racist remarks during last week’s 3-0 Nations League victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary exchange erupted on the eve of the teams’ rematch, which will be played in Serbia, with Football Association of Ireland officials forced to intervene as the reporter repeatedly sought answers over allegations that have not been independently established.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is completely untrue. That is completely untrue,\u201d an Irish press officer said as attempts were made to take the microphone away from the journalist.<\/p>\n

The reporter refused to give it up and insisted the allegations were true, prompting Hallgrimsson to leave the room and later speak separately to Irish media.<\/p>\n

The confrontation came during an already tense international window, with the fixtures against Israel having become the focus of intense political debate and protests in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the press conference, Hallgrimsson had been asked about an incident in which a co-pilot attacked a pilot on a flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv<\/a> before passengers overpowered the attacker and helped take control of the plane.<\/p>\n

The co-pilot on the flydubai flight<\/a> forced to divert to Saudi Arabia “attempted to carry out a terrorist act”, the UAE’s attorney general<\/a> said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The questions then turned to the alleged racism involving his players.<\/p>\n

Hallgrimsson had already made clear that he did not want to get involved in the dispute, saying the relevant authorities would deal with any allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a game with a lot of emotions attached,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven’t read anything and it’s not something I want to get involved with. It goes to a process, both in our department and with Uefa.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething was reported by both teams, so I just hope we can focus on football and football will be the winner after this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not gone into details looking at this as I have enough to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israel Football Association has not lodged a complaint with Uefa but said it would consider doing so after Sunday’s match.<\/p>\n

The controversy adds another layer to an international window that has already proved unusually difficult for Ireland.<\/p>\n

England smash seven past Croatia<\/p>\n

Harry Kane and Bukayo \u200bSaka \u200bscored \u200btwice apiece as \u2060England dismantled Croatia \u20607-0 in Rijeka on \u200bSaturday, with Jude Bellingham scoring \u2060one goal and creating three more in a rampant Nations League display.<\/p>\n

Anthony \u2060Gordon and substitute Morgan Rogers \u200balso \u2060struck \u200cas England overwhelmed a ragged \u200bCroatian defence in their third League A, Group Three match at the Rujevica stadium.<\/p>\n

Saka heaped praise on teammate Bellingham, saying: “He was amazing tonight.”<\/p>\n

“He deserved player of the year and he deserved man of the match tonight too. He was special.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] happy to play with him and happy to have him in the England team.”<\/p>\n

Kane marked his 124th international appearance with his 88th and 89th England goals, moving within one cap of Peter Shilton’s national record.<\/p>\n

The captain will draw level if he plays \u200bagainst the Czech \u200cRepublic on \u2060Tuesday and could \u200bclaim the record outright \u200bwhen \u200cEngland host Croatia at Wembley on \u2060November 12.<\/p>\n

England are in second place in the group, three points behind leaders Spain, who beat the Czech Republic 3-1 in Oviedo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson walked out of his pre-match press conference after an Israeli journalist accused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,3410,43,94319,1284,329],"class_list":["post-644608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sport-team","tag-standard","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644608","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=644608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}