Uefa opens disciplinary probe after allegation an Israel player spat at Ireland coach
Uefa has opened an investigation after claims that a member of the Republic of Ireland coaching staff was spat at by an Israeli player during the Nations League match in Backa Topola on Sunday. The allegation emerged after a heated encounter between the two sides.
Uefa confirmed that post-match reports submitted by match officials “contained an allegation of an incident in or around the tunnel at half-time” and that it will be the subject of a disciplinary investigation “regarding potential misconducts from player(s)”. The governing body said the matter will be assessed under its disciplinary procedures.
Witnesses at the match reported hearing a member of the Irish staff — understood to be the fitness coach Damian Doyle — claim he had been spat on by an Israeli player as the teams went down the tunnel at half-time. A spokesperson for the Israeli Football Association denied the reports, saying "no one had spat towards the coach".
After the match, Ireland’s coach Heimir Hallgrímsson said his team had been subject to a number of apparent provocations in the buildup and sought to defuse the incident. "There have been a lot of those ‘accidents’ and we were clever enough to avoid it before it went too far," Hallgrimsson said. "I felt it was their intention to intimidate us and make us do something stupid. I give big credit to how the players handled their emotions."
The allegation comes amid heightened tensions around the Ireland-Israel double-header, during which Ireland faced pressure from supporters at home to boycott the matches and conducted a vote over whether to fulfil the opening fixture in Hungary. The second match, nominally an Ireland home fixture, was held in Backa Topola after the Football Association of Ireland said "operational challenges" would prevent it from staging it safely in Dublin. The buildup involved increasingly heated accusations made by both parties.
Two Israeli journalists were banned from attending Ireland’s post-match press conference after Uefa found they had brought "football into disrepute by using a press conference for politically motivated purposes" and displayed "improper behaviour" during and after a pre-match press conference. Hallgrímsson has asked that Uefa keep Ireland and Israel separate from each other in future draws.
A Uefa spokesperson said: "Decisions to avoid certain teams being drawn against each other are made taking into consideration several factors, especially conditions between the two countries leading to structural risks for security. Uefa handles every situation very carefully on its own merits and monitors all facts and developments."