Israel’s fans cheer during a group 1, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Israel at the ZImbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
Israel’s players celebrate their side’s first goal scored by Israel’s Dor Peretz during a group 1, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Israel at the ZImbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
Israel’s fans cheer during a group 1, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Israel at the ZImbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
Israel’s players celebrate their side’s third goal, scored by Israel’s Manor Solomon, during a group 1, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Israel at the ZImbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
Israel soccer coach ‘standing behind my country’ amid calls for squad to be suspended
DEBRECEN, Hungary (AP) 鈥 The coach of Israel鈥檚 national soccer team says he is 鈥渟tanding behind my country鈥 amid calls for the team to be suspended from international competition because of the war in Gaza, adding that 鈥渨e are in a very complicated situation.鈥
Israel’s fans cheer during a group 1, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Israel at the ZImbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
DEBRECEN, Hungary (AP) 鈥 The coach of Israel鈥檚 national soccer team says he is 鈥渟tanding behind my country鈥 amid calls for the team to be suspended from international competition because of the war in Gaza, adding that 鈥渨e are in a very complicated situation.鈥
Israel 鈥渉osts鈥 Italy in neutral Hungary in a World Cup qualifier Monday and the Italian Soccer Coaches鈥 Association said last month that it had written a formal letter calling for Israel to be suspended.
鈥淲e have a super morale and amazing country,鈥 Israel coach Ran Ben-Shimon said. 鈥淚 trust my people. We are trusting our army and soldiers. And I鈥檓 standing behind my country.鈥
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Ben-Shimon added that he wasn鈥檛 paying attention to the criticism 鈥渋n front of me,鈥 because 鈥淚鈥檓 looking who is standing behind me and this is our people. We are playing for them, to make them joyful, to make them a few moments of happy.鈥
Israel routed Moldova 4-0 on Friday and sits second in Group I behind Norway.
Norway leads the group with 12 points, Israel has nine points and four-time champion Italy trails in third with six points.
Group winners qualify automatically while the second-place finishers will enter the playoffs.
Israel has only qualified for the World Cup once, in 1970. Back then, Israel played in the Asian confederation. Due to security issues, Israel moved to UEFA, the European confederation, in 1994.
鈥淲e are in a very good process of advancing all the time in all aspects of the game,鈥 Ben-Shimon said late Sunday. 鈥淲e are in a very complicated situation in Israel, so we try to make our best out of it. I think under the circumstances that we are dealing with, we have great guys in the Israeli national team that keep on studying, keep on learning.鈥
A group of about 50 Italy fans clad in all black turned their backs in before a Nations League match in Hungary last year.
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Israel is set to visit Italy on Oct. 14 in Udine, although the town鈥檚 mayor, Alberto Felice De Toni, has called for the game to be postponed due to security concerns.
While Israel鈥檚 games have been moved to Hungary because of the conflict in Gaza with Hamas, UEFA has not considered suspending Israel because no UEFA member is refusing to play Israeli teams.
Indeed, the Italian soccer federation has shown no interest in not playing Israel and an Italy-Israel game in Udine last October was held without incident 鈥 although amid .
鈥淚鈥檓 a man of peace. It hurts to see people and children losing their lives,鈥 Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e here to play our game but there鈥檚 respect and pain for what is happening.鈥
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