{"id":632400,"date":"2026-09-30T19:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/632400\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:18:09","slug":"a-lot-of-lies-ireland-manager-hits-out-over-coverage-of-bazunu-exit-from-israel-game-republic-of-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/632400\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A lot of lies\u2019: Ireland manager hits out over coverage of Bazunu exit from Israel game | Republic of Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland manager, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson, has claimed \u201ca lot of lies\u201d were told over keeper Gavin \u2060Bazunu\u2019s decision to withdraw<\/a> \u2060from the Nations League \u200bgame against Israel last weekend, and he does not anticipate any problems with Sunday\u2019s second match against them going ahead.<\/p>\n

Ireland are one of Europe\u2019s most outspoken critics of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, \u2060and protests calling for the team to boycott the fixture prompted Bazunu to pull out of both games between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday\u2019s match, which Ireland won 3-0<\/a>, went ahead after a majority of their squad \u2060voted to play on the eve of the away fixture in Hungary. Media reports indicated a fractured squad after the meeting and \u200bvote, and that Bazunu had been insulted by teammates \u200cover his decision.<\/p>\n

The keeper is \u200cavailable for Thursday\u2019s home game with Austria, but will not take part in Sunday\u2019s rematch with Israel, which the Football Association \u200cof Ireland (FAI) has moved to Serbia behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cGavin is a great lad, I\u2019ve always had a good relationship with him and it\u2019s probably tougher for him than the other players, but they have really welcomed him,\u201d Hallgr\u00edmsson told a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of lies said around all of this, but we welcomed him back and he\u2019s taking part. Amazing, I think it shows his character, as well, to be with \u200cus. So I want to give him praise for that. I want to give the players praise for how welcome they have been with him,\u201d he added. \u201cLife goes on. He\u2019s a \u200bpart of this group and I think that shows how strong the bond is between these players that even a thing like this is not breaking us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland midfielder Finn Azaz has also been the centre of attention given his deep Israeli heritage, and remained on the bench for the win over Israel. Hallgrimsson was asked if Azaz would be involved \u2060in Sunday\u2019s fixture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are focusing on this one [against Austria], you can probably ask me that \u200bquestion later on,\u201d the manager said. \u201cFinn has \u200bshown incredible emotional control and awareness. He \u200bprobably is one of the people I admire the most in how he conducted himself \u200bin all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s \u200cgame against Austria in \u200bDublin is expected to bring \u200bfurther protests over Ireland playing Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am focused on football, I\u2019ll let others think about security,\u201d Hallgr\u00edmsson said. \u201cThe FAI has said we are playing both games and we will fulfil that. It has been really, really tough, but I surely think that in time we will have seen that we took more right decisions than wrong ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland manager, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson, has claimed \u201ca lot of lies\u201d were told over keeper Gavin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-632400","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\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}