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Heimir Hallgrimsson accused Israel of setting out to “intimidate” his Republic of Ireland side after a 1-1 Nations League draw in Serbia descended into a half-time tunnel confrontation and an allegation that a member of the Irish backroom staff was spat at.
Ireland led through a Troy Parrott penalty on 39 minutes at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola on Sunday, only for Israel captain Dor Peretz to equalise two minutes into the second half. But the football was quickly overtaken by what happened as the teams left the pitch at the interval, with Damien Doyle, Ireland’s head of athletic performance, alleging that he had been spat at by an Israel player. Television pictures captured a voice saying “he spat on me” as both benches clashed near the tunnel mouth.
“I felt like they were trying to intimidate us from kick-off, but I give a lot of credit to the players to stay calm,” Hallgrimsson said afterwards. “It could have been a game of yellow and red cards, but we were composed.” Of the alleged spitting, the Iceland-born manager was careful: “It’s tense, it’s a lot of emotions. It was an accusation of spitting on someone, but I didn’t see it.” He added that it was “something that a disciplinary committee would probably look at.”
By Ahmad Ali, Sports Editor
Claim, counter-claim and no comment
Israel head coach Ran Ben-Shimon said he had no knowledge of the incident. “At half-time I was in the dressing room, my room, with my staff. I didn’t see anything. When I get the chance to check, I will get back to you.”
Pressed on whether his players had deliberately targeted Jayson Molumby — the Ireland midfielder was fouled repeatedly, including for the penalty, and had reported abusive chanting at the sides’ previous meeting — Ben-Shimon was emphatic. “Come on, come on. We don’t do it. We just don’t do it, we are not men like this.”
The Israel Football Association declined to address the allegation directly, its press officer telling reporters: “No comment. I didn’t see anything, so I can’t comment on that.” Asked whether the two nations should be kept apart in future draws, Hallgrimsson deferred. “No, shouldn’t. That’s not ours to decide. It’s for UEFA to decide.”
A fixture that was combustible long before kick-off
Sunday was the second meeting in eight days and the culmination of a sequence of flashpoints that had little to do with football:
- Ireland won the first match 3-0 on 27 September at the Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary — Israel’s neutral home base — in front of 319 spectators, with goals from Parrott, Adam Idah and Jack Moylan.
- The FAI subsequently opened an investigation into whether Idah and James Abankwah were racially abused by Israel supporters during that game.
- Hallgrimsson’s pre-match press conference on Saturday was abandoned after Israeli journalist Motti Pshehatzki alleged Irish players had directed racist abuse at Israel’s team in Debrecen. FAI communications manager Kieran Crowley rejected the claim as “completely untrue”; footage showed an FAI staff member attempting to take the microphone before Hallgrimsson left the room.
- Sunday’s return, nominally an Ireland home fixture, was relocated to Serbia and played behind closed doors — attendance zero — after the FAI board cited “operational challenges” in staging it on Irish soil. UEFA approved the move amid calls for a boycott.
Neither side observed the usual pre-match formalities. Ireland wore black armbands to mark “all lives lost” in the Israel-Gaza conflict and bowed their heads during Israel’s anthem; Israel’s armbands carried “7.10”, commemorating the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.
The internal cost was visible too. Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrew from both fixtures after an anonymous squad vote to fulfil them, a ballot Hallgrimsson said was leaked “almost in real time” to newspapers. Finn Azaz, who is of Israeli heritage through his mother, stayed with the squad but was an unused substitute twice. “We spoke a lot together and it was just tough on him,” Hallgrimsson said. “I just felt it was better to leave him out today than play him.”
Two dropped points Ireland may come to regret
Lost in the noise is a result that damages Ireland’s promotion bid. Parrott’s spot-kick was his fourth goal of a campaign in which Ireland have scored six, but Peretz’s 47th-minute finish — Israel’s first goal in open play against them across the two games — exposed another listless Irish second half. Officials separated a further confrontation in stoppage time, and there were more exchanges after the whistle.
Group B3 now reads: Austria eight points, Kosovo five, Ireland five on inferior head-to-head after September’s 1-0 defeat in Pristina, Israel two. Ireland, who also drew 2-2 at home with Austria on 1 October, must travel to Vienna on 14 November before hosting Kosovo three days later. Anything less than victory in Austria and promotion to League A, the prize Hallgrimsson was hired to chase, is gone.
For now, the more consequential verdict rests with UEFA’s disciplinary bodies, who must weigh an unwitnessed allegation against the word of two federations that agree on almost nothing. Whatever they decide, European football’s governing body has a scheduling problem it can no longer pretend is hypothetical: these two teams have met twice, and twice the story has been everything except the match.
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**Sources:** [Sky Sports (1-1)](https://www.skysports.com/football/republic-of-ireland-vs-israel/7868547122330107232) · [Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/2026/10/04/israel-fa-offers-no-comment-to-spitting-allegation-made-by-ireland-backroom-member/) · [The Journal](https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-israel-spitting-allegation-2-7182461-Oct2026/) · [The National](https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2026/10/05/hallgrimsson-says-israel-tried-to-intimidate-ireland-players-during-tense-nations-league-draw/) · [ESPN (press conference)](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50092667/ireland-israel-news-conference-abruptly-cut-short) · [Sky Sports (first leg)](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/13592543/israel-0-3-republic-of-ireland-heimir-hallgrimssons-side-win-controversial-nations-league-meeting-in-hungary) · [RTÉ (Azaz)](https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2026/1004/1593947-hallgrimsson-israel-match-context-too-tough-on-azaz/) · [Wikipedia (Nations League B)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Nations_League_B)
Article is 836 words. Two notes on verification: the first-leg date is given as 27 September by Wikipedia and UEFA’s results list but 28 September in one Sky report — I used 27 September. The “monkeys” wording of the Israeli journalist’s allegation traces to a Daily Mail report rather than the on-record exchange, so I described the claim as racist abuse without quoting the specific slur.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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