Israel vs Ireland thrown into chaos as press convention cancelled and gamers maintain assembly

Israel and Ireland’s match has been thrown into chaos amid uncertainty over whether the match will go ahead after Ireland were forced to cancel their press conference

Ireland’s press conference ahead of their clash with Israel was cancelled with just 15 minutes’ notice as discussions take place over whether players will participate in the match.

Players and management are said to be engaged in meetings at the team hotel in Debrecen ahead of Sunday’s expected meeting.

Heimir Hallgrimsson was due to face the media at 9.15am before the press conference was postponed until following training. That was was scheduled to begin at 10am but meetings have instead taken place at the team hotel.

Hallgrimsson was meant to face the media at 11.30am following the postponement but that is now set to be moved again.

Ireland’s players held a meeting among themselves on Friday to discuss the matches with Israel but the details from that have yet to emerge. Midfielder Jason Knight previously told reporters that he felt the games against Israel shouldn’t go ahead.

“I don’t think the game obviously should be going ahead but it is going ahead,” he said. “We’ll have a deeper talk about it and what that means, we’ll get our thoughts as a group and go from there.”

After announcing his squad ahead of the international break, Ireland boss Hallgrimsson said that his team were ‘playing against genocide’.

“We’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide,” he said. “We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel.”

That prompted furious backlash from the Israel FA. “We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way,” they said.

“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.”

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin called those comments ‘unacceptable’. “They are unacceptable remarks and should be withdrawn,” he told reporters in New York.

“We’re very clear and I think [UN secretary-general] Antonio Guterres said it again this morning, he has never in his lifetime seen the level and scale of death and destruction as he witnessed in terms of the Israeli government’s war on Gaza in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack preceding the war. Our manager is saying the exact same thing.

“Israel can’t keep denying what the world knows and what the world understands.”