Israel captain Manor Solomon has launched an astonishing rant after Ireland refused to shake hands with his country and blanked their national anthem.
Ireland and Israel played a controversial match in Hungary on Sunday night, which Irish goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu boycotted on ethical grounds.
Skipper Dara O’Seah did not shake hands with West Ham star Solomon for the coin toss and Ireland wore black armbands throughout the game.
Solomon said: ‘They said nonsense [to us] during the game, I don’t want to talk about them.
‘If I say what I think about them, I’ll probably be banned for a few games so I don’t want to say. Of course they hate us and we don’t like them.
‘I’m already looking forward to the next game against them, it’s going to be completely different. What they did with the anthem? I’m not interested in them, we have a country that is ten times better than theirs, stronger, an amazing country with amazing people.
‘We are proud to wear the national team’s shirt and be Israelis. We are proud of our country and our soldiers. [The Irish] can play all their tricks. We are Israelis and love the country. And that will always be the case.
‘We will do everything to make it look completely different against Kosovo, we have four more games in the campaign and it’s not over. I believe in ourselves that we can do it. I know who I’m with here, I know the players and the team, we will get out of this and get revenge for this.’
Israel captain manor Solomon boasted how his country is ‘ten times better’ than Ireland – after the irish players refused to shake hands ahead of their match
The build-up to the game was marred with controversy as Ireland’s squad held a four-hour meeting deciding whether they even wanted to play.
Bazunu’s withdrawal did lead some players to consider pulling out alongside him, the Irish Times claims, before a ‘significant majority’ voted in favour of playing the game and protesting in their own way.
The Bolton custodian justified his decision by saying: ‘I am a man of strong faith and try my best to be a person of character and principle’.
‘My decision is based purely upon my belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong.
‘It is important to note that my stance is not in opposition to the Israeli people or the Jewish community but against the atrocities in the region.
‘There are few times when you get a chance in life to stand for something bigger and I strongly believe that this is one of them.’
On Thursday night, Bazunu’s team-mate Jason Knight publicly shared his discomfort at the prospect of facing Israel.
‘I don’t think the game obviously should be going ahead but it is going ahead,’ said Knight. ‘We’ll have a deeper talk about it and what that means, we’ll get our thoughts as a group and go from there.
Ireland’s substitutes and staff also looked at the floor during Israel’s anthem, with the squad having voted to play the match
Heimir Hallgrimsson was heavily criticised in Israel for saying Ireland are ‘playing against genocide’
‘It is (uncomfortable). There is obviously a lot of talk and rightly so about the scenario we’re in, but I thought Dara spoke quite well (on Wednesday).
‘It’s a bigger spotlight obviously (around the Israel games) and not focused on the football itself. It’s very, very unusual and none of us have come into this scenario before so we’re learning on the fly as well. So we’ll talk as a group and see what is the best foot forward.’
Defender Dara O’Shea, meanwhile, admitted his side were in a ‘tough position’.
‘As soon as the game was decided by the FAI, the government and Uefa, we were always going to be put in a tough position. We feel exposed, it’s come down to us as such at the end,’ he said this week. ‘We knew that was going to be the case and this was going to come our way. It’s a difficult situation but we understand the severity of it too.
‘It doesn’t really necessarily matter my opinion entirely. It’s about the group’s decision. We’ve got to come together as one and navigate that ourselves. This is obviously slightly different.’
Ireland won 3-0 after first-half goals from Troy Parrott, Adam Idah and Jack Moylan, who took off his black armband and kissed it when celebrating. There were no handshakes at full time and Ireland’s players were booed as they left the field.
It may well have been a talking point had Israel scored, given how forward Sayed Abu Farchi was sent off in the second half of his side’s defeat against Austria having taken the corner flag out the ground and appeared to mimic a gunshot.
Fans were left stunned and judged the move to be in bad taste, but Israel’s delegation insisted that Farchi was imitating a snooker hit.
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson had previously stirred controversy after saying his team are ‘playing against genocide’ amid Israel’s attacks on Palestine, where more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war in Gaza began.
Hallgrimsson’s comments sparked an angry backlash from Israeli officials, but there have been growing calls for the game to be scrapped by the Irish public – with a petition attracting over 17,000 signatures.
Israel’s Sayed Abu Farchi was sent off on Thursday after mimicking a gunshot following a goal
UEFA rules mean teams must name at least three goalkeepers in their squad and Bazunu’s withdrawal meant that Jimmy Dunne, the QPR centre back, was named as a keeper on the official team-sheet.
Irish broadcaster RTE cut back its screening of the game with no studio punditry, no advertising and only using commentary from an international feed.
Many pubs in Ireland refused to show the game and there were protests outside the team hotel in Dublin earlier in the week.
Ireland are set to play Israel again on Sunday but it will be behind closed doors at a neutral venue in Serbia.
