Israel Football Association cites Nobel Prize winners in rant at Ireland coach

The Israel Football Association (IFA) has accused Ireland’s head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson of “stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy”, while trumpeting the “impressive number of Nobel Prizes” won by Israelis. 

“We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way,” the IFA said in a social media post on Monday night.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by @IrelandFootball team coach. We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we’re playing against the coach who embodies them,” the IFA tweeted.

The post came after remarks made by Hallgrimsson last week in response to a question about how difficult it would be to keep his players focused on football during the upcoming Uefa Nations League campaign.

“We are not playing with genocide, we are playing against genocide,” Ireland’s Icelandic coach said. “We are playing against Israel; we are not playing with Israel.”

The Nations League, an international tournament played by European teams, begins this week, with Ireland and Israel drawn alongside Austria and Kosovo in Group G.

Ireland play in Kosovo on Thursday and are then scheduled to face Israel in Debrecen, Hungary, on 27 September, before playing them on 4 October in Backa Topola, Serbia.  

The game in Serbia is technically Ireland’s home game – it was moved from Dublin by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which cited “operational challenges” that could “impact on the delivery of the game on home soil”.

Israel's opening game on Thursday is against Austria in Linz.

In July, Rebecca O'Keeffe, from the Irish Sport For Palestine (ISFP) group, which has been campaigning to stop Ireland playing Israel, told MEE: “We're looking at all channels of action. We have been connecting with pro-Palestine Austrian groups on the ground, civil society groups, and we're going to be working alongside them.”

International and European club games have not been held in Israel since October 2023 due to security concerns. 

Israel and international football

As Israel’s genocide in Gaza has unfolded, killing more than 74,000 Palestinians - including at least 567 footballers, a number of international football associations have called for Israel’s suspension from the game.

Inside the struggle to 'stop the game' between Ireland and Israel

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In March, Fifa, international football's governing body, accused the IFA of bringing the game "into disrepute", but did not ban the Israeli association and only issued a fine of $190,000.

In November last year, FAI members overwhelmingly passed a formal resolution instructing their board to call on Uefa, European football’s governing body, to immediately suspend Israel’s football association.

But despite a lengthy and ongoing popular campaign in Ireland to “stop the game” against Israel, they are still set to take place, with the debt-laden FAI saying it needs the revenue.

At a press briefing last Friday, the association’s chief David Courell referred to the “atrocities” taking place in Gaza, and said the FAI was as opposed to anyone to Israel continuing to play football.

“It is accurate to say the FAI wishes we were not in this position,” Courell said. “We have been clear in our view by virtue of the breaches of the (Uefa) statutes that Israel should not be playing these games.” 

Over 160 high-level Irish athletes signed an open letter to Ireland’s football team on Monday urging them to “collectively act with conscience and not play Israel”.

Signatories to the letter, written by the Irish Sport for Palestine Group, include rugby player Tony Ward, Gaelic footballers Joe Brolly and Colm O’Rourke, and runner Ciara Mageean.

Israel has had 12 individual Nobel Prize laureates. In November 2024, one of them, Aaron Ciechanover, said citizens who "want to live in a free, liberal-democratic country" were leaving Israel for good.