ROBBIE KEANE SAYS he remained with Maccabi Tel Aviv through to the end of last season as he felt a duty of care to his players and staff. 

Keane was appointed as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv in June 2023, and led the club to a league and cup double before resigning at the end of the season. He remained at the club following Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in reprise to the Hamas attacks of 7 October. 

Keane was criticised in Ireland for his decision to remain in Israel following the start of the war, and a social media post by the FAI last week showing Keane presenting international caps to the Irish players led to a fresh wave of criticism. Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for sport, Chris Andrews, posted on X that the FAI’s decision to invite Keane into the camp was “extremely disappointing.” 

Claudine Keane subsequently hit back at critics of her husband’s decision to remain in Israel, saying she believed her family’s safety has been threatened by critical messages “from a small group that are hurtful, threatening and dangerous.”

Keane today made an appearance on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast and publicly explained his decision to remain working at Maccabi Tel Aviv for the first time. 

“Let’s make it clear, obviously there has been a lot of stuff going on”, said Keane when Ferdinand referenced his success at the club and his new career as a manager. 

“I resigned at the end of the season from my post at Maccabi Tel Aviv. What people don’t understand, when it did happen, we left [the country]. But I’ve got five staff, I’ve a lot of foreign players, who rely on me as their coach. 

“We were winning the league, they hadn’t won it in three years; we were in Europe and doing very, very well. My analyst guy for example, he’s got a mortgage. He’s got a family, he’s got kids he has to feed. The decision just to step away from something, it’s not just my decision, it’s everybody else’s decision, which was tough.

“Let’s make it clear, what is happening is terrible and nobody wants to see it and hopefully it ends very, very soon. But at the end of the day, I’m a football manager and my staff have got people to look after. I’ve got a duty of care.

“My analyst guy for example was at Middlesbrough for 12 years. Twelve years. For him to come with me [to Israel], and then for me just to walk away from that and leave him and his family…because you can’t just walk into a job. It’s difficult to walk into a job straight away after leaving a post for 12 years. He is just one example, I had other staff.

“I had players calling me, ‘Please don’t leave coach, don’t leave, what you have done for this club’, blah, blah, blah, whatever it may be. So I made the decision to stay until the end of the season and walk away from a big contract [with] another year, possibly two more years. We made that decision as a group and as a staff.

“But to go and win the league and to win the double, nobody can ever take that away from me.” 

Keane says he looks forward to getting back into management, as he has remained out of the game since walking away from Maccabi Tel Aviv. 

Written by Gavin Cooney and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.