Why the Republic of Ireland players took to the pitch wearing black armbands in a match with no handshakes, no pennants
Before the handshake-less match began
When the players appeared on the pitch, the stadium air was strangely tense.
Nagyerdei Stadium, Hungary. The UEFA Nations League match between the Republic of Ireland and Israel was, even before kickoff, placed under a different kind of gravity than ordinary football.
Players from both teams stood for the national anthems, and the Ireland players bowed their heads while Israel's anthem played. But there was no pre-match handshake. There was no exchange of pennants. The two captains, Dara O'Shea and Manor Solomon, left the spot without extending their hands to each other.
That silence spoke of something.
The long meeting room on Saturday
On the Saturday before the match, the Ireland players held a lengthy discussion at their hotel in Debrecen.
The question on the table was whether or not to take part in the next day's match.
With the fighting in Gaza continuing, a movement called "Stop The Game" spread across Ireland, and more than 160 athletes signed an open letter calling for a boycott of the match. Pressure on the players had been building for weeks before the game.
Facing that question, the players tried to arrive at their own answer.
In the end, the majority of the players chose to play. Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, however, made a different choice. He said he felt that "taking part would not be right." He offered, of his own accord, to withdraw not only from the next day's match but also from the rematch in Serbia in October.
Holding the same information and facing the same circumstances, the players arrived at different conclusions. This isn't a matter of which was right. What existed there was time in which each player faced himself inwardly and tried to find an answer in his own words.
A coach who can say "I still don't know"
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson spoke quietly in a pre-match interview.
This week has been the hardest of my coaching career. I want to make as many right decisions as possible, but I can't get everything right.
"I can't get everything right" is a rare thing to hear from a manager's mouth. Someone in a position expected to present a clear vision for victory and show no hesitation chose instead words that confronted his own limits.
He also acknowledged that "many players are carrying complicated feelings" within the squad, and said there were "many young players who had to be protected." As for the team's preparation for that day's match, he went as far as to say it was "as bad as it could possibly be."
Even so, they stood on the pitch.
In football, there are times when a match begins without any answer having been reached. Rather than standing only once everything is in order, there are moments when both players and managers are asked to bring their unresolved selves onto the pitch.
The black armband, and the weight of its meaning
During the match, the players wore black armbands. The day before, Football Association of Ireland chief executive David Courell explained that it was a gesture expressing "thoughts for all the lives lost in the Gaza conflict."
Jack Moylan, who scored the third goal, removed his armband while celebrating, kissed it, then kissed the team's crest.
A goal celebration is one of the most personal moments of expression in football. What he chose to do in that moment had no script. It felt like a scene in which feelings too tangled to sort out simply came out through the movement of his body.
The match ended in a 3-0 win for the Republic of Ireland. And yet, talking about this match only in terms of the score feels like it would miss something.
A match not held in the "right" place
This match was played at a stadium in Hungary. What should have been a home match for Ireland was instead confirmed by the FAI to be held not at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, but in Bačka Topola, Serbia. The stadium had no spectators. There was no general sale of tickets for Ireland supporters. There were only a handful of Israel fans as well.
If the standard form of modern football is a match played in a stadium divided into "home" and "away," with supporters cheering, then this match took place far outside that form.
And yet the ball was kicked, goals were scored, and the match came to an end.
When football is drawn into a political or social context, both the meaning of continuing the match and the meaning of not continuing it are called into question again. It was a day on which, at a point with no correct answer, each individual was forced to make a judgment.
The next match is on October 4th
On October 4th, the two teams will meet again in Bačka Topola, Serbia.
Bazunu will not take part in that match either. The rest of the players will stand on the pitch once more.
Manager Hallgrímsson will likely lead the team again in a situation that remains unresolved. The players wearing armbands will head to that place once more.
On that day too, there will probably again be no handshake before kickoff.
The meaning behind pre-match handshakes and flag exchanges
Several rituals have become fixed before football matches. A handshake between captains and an exchange of team pennants are among them. The pennant originally began as a courtesy toward one's opponent, and it is carried out as a matter of course in many matches.
Choosing not to perform this ritual is not a violation of the rules. When players or teams deliberately omit it, it becomes a means of sending the message that "this match exists in a different context from an ordinary fixture."
The fact that there was neither a handshake nor a pennant exchange this time shows, on a layer separate from the score or the result, the weight under which the match was placed. Football's rituals also serve as a quiet barometer of what the pitch is carrying on any given day.
Questions surrounding this match
Having followed a particular player for many years, I've come to read the atmosphere before a match. The way a player walks out onto the pitch, or where their gaze lands, can sometimes convey what that day's match contains before any words do. The sight of players standing for the national anthem while wearing black armbands also, in that sense, quietly conveyed something.
It's often said that sport and politics cannot be separated. What I think, as a spectator, is that perhaps it isn't that they can't be separated — perhaps what was always one continuous thing has simply been looked at as two separate things all along. Have you ever been to a match where you felt the weight of politics while watching?
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