David Correll, CEO of the Irish Football Association, said on Saturday that the national team will play its scheduled match, Sunday, against its Israeli counterpart in the European Nations League, after holding a vote within the team regarding holding the match.
Ireland had postponed its press conference that was scheduled before the match in Hungary, and team training was also postponed. This came to provide an opportunity to continue talks between the players, the technical staff, and the executives, after one of the players revealed his intention to withdraw from the team. The match has been the focus of great interest since the draw was held in February. Ireland is one of the European countries most critical of Israel's war in Gaza.
Ireland witnessed many protests demanding that the national team not play matches against Israel. Coryell told reporters: “This morning, one of the players informed the coach that he was not comfortable playing this match, and revealed his intention to withdraw from the squad.” He added: “In the end, during the past 90 minutes, we held a vote among the team members to find out their opinion about playing the matches, and the overwhelming majority came in favor of moving forward. Accordingly, the Association has taken a decision on behalf of Irish football that this match will be held.”
Ireland was scheduled to hold the press conference on Saturday, but shortly before the scheduled time at 10:15 am local time (08:15 GMT), journalists were informed that the conference would be held after the end of the team’s training session at the Debrecen Stadium. The training session was scheduled to start at 11:00 am local time, but 3 hours later the Irish team was still inside the hotel. Before Ireland's opening match in Group Two in the second level away from Kosovo, which they lost 1-0, team captain Dara O'Shea told reporters that the players would meet, on Friday, to discuss the plan for dealing with the Israel match. Members of the Irish Football Association voted in November for their board to ask UEFA to suspend Israel’s participation in continental competitions, but a motion in favor of going ahead with the matches was approved during an extraordinary meeting of the Irish Football Association’s General Assembly in July.
All of Israel's matches are scheduled to be held at home in the city of Debrecen, while Ireland has moved its match scheduled for October 4 to Serbia, and that match will be held without an audience. The tension increased further when Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson used the word “genocide” in a press conference last week.
The Israeli Football Association responded by describing his statements as “stupid and ignorant.” UN experts and human rights organizations described the Israeli attack on Gaza as genocide, a claim that Israel strongly rejects.
Briton George Russell overtook Dutchman Max Verstappen by a tenth of a second to win the Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix, which witnessed several accidents at the Baku Circuit on Saturday, narrowing the gap with his Mercedes colleague, Italian Kimi Antonelli, at the top of the world championship.
Russell started from first place and succeeded in achieving a difference of 11 seconds, before the safety car periods caused Verstappen to approach in his Red Bull car directly behind the Mercedes car.
Verstappen chased Russell to the finish line, and came close enough on the last lap to launch a final attack at turn fifteen, but the Briton was able to maintain the lead and move away from the Dutchman.
“The last lap was fast,” Russell said after the end of the race. It was very close. After yellow flags the extra payment advantage is lost. "I thought he was going to pass me by."
As for Verstappen, who had a distinguished race, he dealt with the matter calmly, saying: “In the last lap, George lost the advantage of extra propulsion and I approached him, but that was not enough.”
The Frenchman of Algerian origin, Ishak Hajjar, another Red Bull driver, came in third place, while Monogasi driver Charles Leclerc of Ferrari came fourth.
As for Antonelli, who was ahead of Russell by 81 points before the race, but started from sixteenth place after suffering an accident in qualifying, he was able to advance among the competitors to finish the race fifth.
The race witnessed two prominent accidents in the middle.
On the thirty-fifth lap, Thai Alex Albon collided with his Williams car into the wall, which required the safety car to enter and regroup the racers.
When the race resumed, Argentine Franco Colapinto tried to advance from the inside, but did not find enough space when entering the next corner.
His wheels locked and his car slid sideways, pushing his French Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly towards Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), causing the three to slide out of the track together.
The two drivers of the struggling French team were on their way to achieving two places in the top ten.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” Gasly said over the team radio. “I can’t believe it,” he said, before adding an expletive. “A lot of points were lost.”
New Zealander Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls driver, was directly behind the accident.
Albert delos Santos, the Asian junior champion, delved into weightlifting after the death of his father and coach Alvin, using the sport that brought them together as an escape to overcome grief.
On Saturday, the 20-year-old Filipino honored his father after he climbed to the podium at the Asian Games in Nagoya, winning a bronze medal in the 70-kilogram competition.
He thus continued a strong family legacy in weightlifting, as his parents were members of the national team, while his sister Desa represented the Philippines in Jakarta eight years ago.
“My sister participated in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, and being here now is like a complete circle,” he said at the Fukiage Hall in Nagoya. My father also lived in the nineties. This is a legacy he left to me.”
Alvin delos Santos, a medalist at the Southeast Asian Games in the 1990s, died of liver cancer in March, leaving his son Albert grief-stricken before the World Junior Championships in Egypt.
“Since my father passed away, I have dedicated myself to training,” Delos Santos said.
He suffered a setback due to an injury before the tournament held in Egypt, but he was eventually able to overcome it and win the gold medal.
On the podium, he pulled out a picture of his father from his jacket to honor his memory.
When asked what he would say to his father after winning the Asian Games bronze, Delos Santos said: “Thank you, I love you.”
Delos Santos, who came third behind North Korea's Ri Won Joo, who won the gold, and Japan's Masanori Miyamoto, said that lifting 183 kilograms in the clean was particularly satisfactory after his struggle to lift 170 kilograms during the preparation period.
He said: “I had very difficult days before the competition, but when I got here and started training, I felt good. “Anything is possible, as long as you get out of bed and get off the couch.”
In the evening of the weightlifting competition, Indonesian Rahmat Erwin Abdullah won gold in the 75-kg category, ahead of Thailand's Wiravun Wichuma, who won silver and runner-up at the Paris Olympics in the 73-kg category, and North Korea's Ri Chung Song, who won bronze.
Abdullah lifted 160 kilograms in the snatch and 206 kilograms in the clean and jerk, for a total of 366 kilograms, which are all world records in the recently created weight category.
Abdullah, who won a 73-kg bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, said: “I feel that the matter is much bigger than last time. I don't know, but it looks bigger. The pressure is greater, and I now have a son and wife at home who support me.”
