Vera Pauw says there is no excuse for members of her Republic of Ireland women's team singing a pro-IRA song as they celebrated qualifying for the 2023 FIFA World Cup.
A video was posted of the song on social media by one of the squad members from the away dressing-room in Hampden Park after Ireland's historic 1-0 play-off victory on Tuesday night.
The footage was widely circulated on social media, with a number of players singing and dancing to the Wolfe Tones song 'Celtic Symphony'.
READ MORE: Members of Ireland team filmed singing pro-IRA song in celebrations
The FAI issued a statement this morning following the squad's arrival back in Dublin and, speaking at a press conference this morning, Pauw began her briefing by addressing the controversy.
"We were made aware of a clip that has gone viral, out of the dressing-room," said Pauw.
"From the bottom of our heart, we are so sorry because there is no excuse for hurting people. It was unnecessary.
"I have spoken already with several players about it and the one who posted it is devastated, she is crying in her room. She is so, so sorry.
"But there is no excuse for it."
Pauw, 59, lives in the Netherlands and admits that she was unaware of the song.
"If I would have been there (in the dressing-room), to be honest, I would not have recognised (the song's significance) because I'm a foreigner, I don't know the song, I don't know what it means," she said.
"I asked, 'Did you know what you were singing?' And they said, 'Of course we know it but we didn't feel it, it was not meant to hurt anyone'.
"But that is no excuse.
"So if you know it, that means that if you have respect for people...and if you know what happened and you know the history and you know the background, because everybody knows that, then it shouldn't have happened.
"Deeply sorry. Even if it's in the emotions of the celebrations, it's as wrong as when it's planned. It shouldn't have happened."
Pauw added: "We're a team that is always respectful to everybody - and respect is the first line of my first meeting with the players.
"That's why I feel so at home in this team because there's always respect for everybody and the fact that this has happened, there's no excuse for it. We cannot hurt people.
"It was part of the moment but that's not an excuse. So it's an educational moment also. We need to take responsibility at any moment, in any time.
"People said to me, 'If it was in private...'. No, even in a private atmosphere you cannot do it because respect is something that carries you through everything, through your whole life and we, yeah, we have that value as the highest point.
"That's the mistake that people often make, that they think, 'Well, it shouldn't have gone out'. No, it shouldn't have happened.
"It's not that it's gone out, it shouldn't have happened. So without cameras it is the same thing because also then you do not show respect to the people that have suffered.
"For anything that we do, whether it's how we clean up the dressing-room, always, we never leave stuff there, up to the message we send out and how we deal with people, the respect that we have for the people around us.
"So, again, I'm responsible for the players, so on behalf of the players and the staff and the association I would offer my sincere apologies to all the people that we have hurt."
Pauw was asked if the incident had cast a pall over the qualification celebrations for the players, who partied well into the night.
"Yeah, but not in the fact that it puts a shadow over the celebrations, they are disappointed that it happened and that they did not realise what they were doing," she said.
"That is again no excuse. It shouldn't have happened and we are deeply sorry for it.
"Even though nobody meant anything with it, it still is wrong because we hurt people and that is the first thing in our line, the first sentence, in my team everybody has respect and there is always respect for everybody around us.
"So we are more disappointed in ourselves that we have overstepped that rule than anything else and we are so sorry that we have hurt people."
As for the player whose social media post went viral, Pauw commented: "I said to her that it is wrong but not only wrong from her, it's wrong that that song has been sang with the meaning that it has. "
"They need to take responsibility for our first rule that we have respect for everybody.
"Even if it doesn't mean anything to them, they (still) know it, but it doesn't mean anything to them because they're young and they haven't experienced those moments.
"We have a responsibility for the respect for the people who are hurt and who are offended by it.
"Your freedom ends when you step into the freedom of somebody else - that's what we say to each other always.
"You can do whatever you want but as soon as you hurt somebody it's wrong. And we're sorry for that and we want to offer our deepest apology to the people that we have offended.
"It's important. Those are the core values in life, that you understand what you do to others the moment you do something.
"And that's whether you make a joke about somebody, and immediately stepped up and do something about it, because you've hurt somebody, or on the other extreme there's a history here that we have to respect and even if you don't experience it yourself you have hurt people, so it's wrong.
"And we need to take responsibility over it and we have to be aware of it.
"Hopefully this educates us that you constantly have a responsibility for respect to others."
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