‘We don’t ask questions like this’: sound and fury continues to swirl in Ireland and Israel – The Irish Times

Heimir Hallgrimsson says the Irish have found the peace and quiet they need in the rural and isolated environs of Backa Topola, the incongruous setting for the sound and fury that has swirled around Ireland against Israel.

The Irish team also practice a kind of traditional mindfulness, with Hallgrimsson asking Conor Coventry to lead the Irish team in a calming prayer before last week’s match against Israel. As a result he became known as Brother Coventry.

Alas, the serenity did not last throughout Hallgrimsson’s pre-match press conference. Ten minutes later, an Israeli journalist who last week spoke movingly about “Hamas terrorists” and the horrors of the October 7 attacks while asking Hallgrimsson about his time working in Qatar, read a prepared question. She referenced the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv earlier this week, asking Hallgrimsson about the “people you support, their ideology is based on murder.”

The FAI press officer sitting next to Hallgrimsson intervened, saying “we don’t ask questions like this, we deal with questions about football, we focus on football today”.

The journalist continues her question, with only a few words audible between the press officer’s responses. “Innocent children, thousands more…”

“We respected your question at the last press conference, Heimir respected the question last time,” the FAI press officer responded.

She finally got involved with a football question, asking Hallgrimsson if Finn Azaz would play tomorrow. Hallgrimsson said she would see tomorrow and he would not reveal his team selection to the media.

The microphone was passed to another Israeli journalist, who last week asked Hallgrimsson about Ireland’s match against Nazi Germany in 1936. This time he made an allegation of racism against Irish players, a claim which emerged in Israeli media following last week’s match in Hungary. The FAI press officer intervened, telling the journalist that the claim was “completely false”.

“We will end the press conference there,” the press secretary said, to which the journalist protested: “I’m doing my job, I’m doing my job!” Amid the din and scraping of chairs, the FAI press officer directed Hallgrimsson and the Irish journalists outside to conclude the interview.

“You have just spread a lie,” the FAI press officer said as another FAI staff member took the microphone from the Israeli journalist.

He protested that it was a press conference where he had the right to ask questions, to which the FAI staff member responded that there was a difference between asking a question and making an accusation.

The UEFA field manager, responsible for broadcast operations at the venue, was not in the room for the press conference, much to the frustration of some FAI staff.

Hallgrimsson and the Irish media then stood in an open space outside the press conference room, trying to resume questions and some semblance of normality. The Ireland boss was asked about player availability, having earlier said Dara O’Shea was doubtful as he attended the birth of his child.

“The contractions were starting,” Hallgrimsson said when he was stopped by a scream nearby. “Don’t touch me!” The Israeli journalist who made the racism allegation followed us into the room and appeared to be seeking access to the Irish group with Hallgrimsson, citing his employers’ rights-bearing status. He was engaged in a confrontation with several FAI staff and threatened to call the police. The FAI staff spoke without raising their voices, one of them having called the UEFA official.

Hallgrimsson and the Irish media were then taken down the corridor and ushered into a dressing room which had been requisitioned for FAI use. The press conference ended there without interruption. Journalists crowded around Hallgrimsson, while the FAI security chief stood in front of a laptop, a map of the stadium and various official documents spread out on the table in front of him.

Hallgrimsson left to supervise the Irish training session.

Meanwhile, news of the press conference spread quickly online. An Israeli journalist recorded an image of the FAI official taking the Israeli journalist’s microphone, and the journalist’s employer posted it online, calling it a “shameful incident.”

While their video included the allegation made in the question, the video’s caption stated that their reporter was asking the Irish players “for allegedly swearing at Israeli players.”

Among those who reacted to the video was Israel’s ambassador to the EU, who said: “They respect press freedom as long as you only ask questions they find comfortable answering.” The FAI chose to publish the entire 13-minute press conference, unedited, on its YouTube channel.

The media returned to the stadium at 5:30 p.m. for the Israeli press conference, bracing for further hard feelings. It started on a very pointed note, as the press secretary first invited Israeli journalists to ask questions “as they did not have many opportunities to ask questions during the Irish press conference”.

An Israeli speaker laid bare residual anger from last week’s defeat to Ireland by telling the coach the players were “choking” despite playing for “our honor”.

“I know we disappointed the nation,” said Israel coach Ran Ben Shimon, vowing that Sunday’s match would be different.

The first Irish question cited the communications director’s comments from last week who called for the separation of sport and politics and, in that context, asked whether he condemned supporters chanting “IDF” during the Irish match. He responded that Israel is very proud of its armed forces and angrily rejected the assumption that the IDF is a political entity.

The press secretary intervened, saying, “I won’t take away your microphone, but we won’t answer your question.”

The Israel FA also confirmed it had yet to contact UEFA over the racism allegations made at the Irish press conference earlier, while the coach spoke of a blind focus on football to avoid the many controversial topics posed to him.

The questions ultimately came down to whether it would be better in the future if this didn’t happen again; that it might be time for both associations to approach UEFA and request an “amicable divorce”.

The Israeli coach disagrees, citing personal experience to say that “divorce is not pleasant.”

This union of about two weeks was not forced either.