'Not clever' to take the headlines

Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has expressed gratitude at the support he has received in the wake of the Israeli FA's furious reaction to his comments about the highly contentious UEFA Nations League games between the teams.

But he added that it was "not clever" on his part to have taken attention away from Thursday's opening group game against Kosovo.

Ireland will face Israel in Hungary this Sunday before a second 'home' fixture which has been moved to Backa Topola in Serbia on 4 October.

In the wake of last week's squad announcement, Hallgrimsson had said that his team "we're not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel."

That prompted a reaction from the Israeli FA which saw them say that the Ireland manager's remarks embodied "stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy".