The football will be played on neutral ground on Sunday night, but the argument around Ireland’s Nations League meeting with Israel has already travelled far beyond the pitch. Heimir Hallgrimsson, Ireland’s Icelandic manager, has become a central figure in the debate after making a forceful distinction between facing an opponent and endorsing its actions.
“We are not playing with genocide; we are playing against genocide,” Hallgrimsson said before the 20:45 kick-off. “We are playing against Israel, not with Israel.” Israel’s federation responded by accusing the 59-year-old of “stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy”, but Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin backed the coach while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Martin said Hallgrimsson’s words reflected widespread concern over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza.
The fixtures are being staged away from Israel for security reasons, with the first meeting set for Debrecen, Hungary, on 27 September and the return game in Backa Topola, Serbia, on 4 October. The matches have prompted intense opposition in Ireland, where more than 160 sports figures signed an open letter urging a boycott. Demonstrators also gathered outside the Irish squad’s Dublin hotel on Monday.
Pressure around a compulsory fixture
The Football Association of Ireland has said it must fulfil the Nations League programme or risk sporting and financial punishment. In November 2025, the association had unsuccessfully backed a motion calling on UEFA to suspend Israel from competition.
Ireland’s public broadcaster will show the match only in a reduced format because of its contractual obligations. There will be no studio presentation, pundit analysis or advertising, with viewers instead receiving commentary from the international feed.
Hallgrimsson had already raised the issue last October, when he questioned why FIFA and UEFA had sanctioned Russia after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine but had not imposed similar measures on Israel. This week, his comments have pushed him back into the wider football spotlight, even during an international window in which attention had also fallen on Zinédine Zidane.
From Heimaey dentist to Ireland manager
His path to this moment has been anything but conventional. Hallgrimsson was the co-manager of Iceland’s celebrated Euro 2016 side, which beat England 2-1 in the last 16 before losing 5-2 to France in the quarter-finals. Two years later, in sole charge while still working as a dentist, he led Iceland to their first World Cup. Iceland drew 1-1 with Argentina in Russia, although they went out in the group stage.
Born on Heimaey, Hallgrimsson was five when a volcanic eruption forced his family to leave the island in 1973. The son of a fishing-net repairer, he continued to see dental patients there while developing his coaching career. Much of his playing and managerial work came at local club IBV, before he moved into Iceland’s national set-up, where he took responsibility for scouting opponents and watched extensive video at home.
Life on the island also left room for puffin hunting with a net, sailing in waters associated with Keiko, the whale made famous by the film Free Willy, and even a local white beer bearing his name. There was no political controversy around Iceland’s World Cup campaign, but Hallgrimsson’s later career took him to Al-Arabi in Qatar from 2018 to 2021 and then Jamaica between 2022 and 2024.
His Jamaica spell ended after an unsuccessful Copa America, before his unexpected appointment as Ireland manager in 2024. Two years on, another island nation is preparing for a difficult night of football, with its coach’s words ensuring that the match against Israel carries a weight no result can fully contain.
