{"id":792588,"date":"2026-10-05T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792588\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:56:09","slug":"israel-face-spitting-allegation-as-ireland-boss-delighted-games-are-over-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792588\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel face spitting allegation as Ireland boss \u2018delighted\u2019 games are over | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland manager says \u2018disciplinary committee will look at\u2019 allegations that Israeli player spat at one of his coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Published On 4 Oct 20264 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

Tempers flared \u200cagain as Ireland and Israel drew 1-1 on Sunday in the second of their two UEFA Nations \u2060League meetings, concluding a fortnight \u2060dominated as much by political tensions as football.<\/p>\n

Ireland had faced calls<\/a> from some supporters and politicians to boycott the fixtures before beating Israel 3-0 behind closed doors in Hungary in their first meeting \u2060a week ago.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely delighted this is finished,\u201d Ireland\u2019s Icelandic coach Heimir Hallgrimsson told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken a toll out of us all. I\u2019ve given so much credit to the players. They have been absolutely amazing in tough times, and I \u2060wish no national team to go through what we have gone through for the last two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland is one of Europe\u2019s most outspoken critics of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, and the Football Association of Ireland chose to stage Sunday\u2019s match behind closed doors in Serbia amid the pressure to withdraw from the fixtures.<\/p>\n

The absence of supporters, however, did little to ease the tension on \u200cthe pitch.<\/p>\n

Irish media reported that one of Ireland\u2019s coaches, Damien Doyle, had accused an Israeli player of spitting at him after the half-time whistle.<\/p>\n

Asked about the spitting incident at the post-match news conference, Hallgrimsson declined to provide details.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there. I\u2019m not going to comment. It\u2019s something a disciplinary committee will look at,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Israel coach Ran Ben-Shimon said he had already left the sideline and did not see what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalftime, I was in the dressing room, in my room with my \u2060staff; I didn\u2019t see anything. When I\u2019m going to see and check, I will get \u2060back to you with the answer,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Tense Ireland-Israel atmosphere again in Nations League<\/p>\n

As in the first meeting, there were no pre-match handshakes or exchange of pennants, while players from each team bowed their heads during the opposing national anthem.<\/p>\n

Ireland again wore black armbands<\/a> commemorating the victims of Israel\u2019s genocidal war in Gaza, \u2060with the Israelis sporting black armbands in memory of the victims of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war.<\/p>\n

Troy Parrott gave Ireland the lead with a 39th-minute penalty, \u2060but Dor Peretz levelled immediately after the break for Israel with their first \u2060effort on target.<\/p>\n

Israel hit the woodwork twice in the second half of a poor game in which neither side could fashion a winner.<\/p>\n

The draw left Ireland third in Group B3 on five points, three behind leaders Austria, with second-placed Kosovo ahead of them on goal difference. Israel are at the bottom with \u200ctwo points.<\/p>\n

Ben-Shimon welcomed his team\u2019s response to the 3-0 defeat and rejected suggestions his players had been overly aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I come to a game, I say to my players, \u2018This is the best way to play the cleanest football as \u200cyou \u200ccan, but be aggressive\u2019, OK? I never say to injure someone; this is not our way. We are very human, human beings; we are very moral human beings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland manager says \u2018disciplinary committee will look at\u2019 allegations that Israeli player spat at one of his coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[591,218,49,2274,9084,590,632,50,217,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-792588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}