The Republic of Ireland’s controversial Nations League fixture with Israel will go ahead on Sunday after a “significant majority” of players voted to proceed following a four-hour summit on Saturday morning in Hungary.
Football Association of Ireland (FAI) chief David Courell also confirmed that one player, widely reported to be goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, “expressed their discomfort with fulfilling this fixture” to manager Heimir Hallgrimsson and “indicated their intent to withdraw” from the squad.
Courell also revealed the Republic intend to wear black armbands on Sunday, refrain from parts of the pre-match ceremony, and players have requested to “effectively remove their media obligations” for the rest of the international window.
“Hopefully you can understand it’s a challenging time,” said Courell at the rescheduled press conference, which took place at 3.30pm local time.
“The squad were in Pristina yesterday, an extensive conversation took place where ultimately the consensus was to travel to Hungary.
“That was something that we all entered into this window with our intention to fulfil these fixtures, and that was the consensus that the group finished on at the end of that two-hour meeting yesterday.
“This morning, a player expressed their discomfort with fulfilling this fixture to the head coach, and indicated their intent to withdraw from the squad. As you can understand, this new variable required time and deliberation for the rest of the squad to consider.
“What proceeded was another four hours of conversations, predominately amongst the players themselves, but also at times with the coaching staff and at times with the executive.
“There were a lot of positions presented, and I think it is important to say that from an association perspective and for everyone involved in those conversations, we were fully respectful for everyone’s right to their respective opinion on these topics.
“Ultimately, within maybe the last 90 minutes, we carried out a vote amongst the squad to establish their sentiment on fulfilling the fixtures, and it was a significant majority that was returned with the intention to continue.
“Based on that, the association took the decision on behalf of Irish football that this fixture would continue as we have always intended to fulfil the fixtures.”
Earlier on Saturday, the Republic postponed a scheduled press conference at 10.15am local time and their training session, both of which took place later in the afternoon following the meeting at the team hotel in Debrecen.
Hallgrimsson confirmed that just one player had withdrawn from the squad. When media in the room raised Bazunu’s name, neither the Republic boss nor Courell denied it was the Bolton keeper, though they did not outright confirm.
Asked to verify if only one player will not be part of his squad on Sunday, however, the Icelandic boss said: “All the rest of the players are training today. Obviously the balance changed with this, so it’s an ongoing discussion.
“We haven’t come to a kind of conclusion on this, but we are going ahead, the game is going ahead. We’re going to train, and there will be more discussions tonight and probably tomorrow.”
Hallgrimsson added that “nobody is comfortable at the moment” and there “is no action everybody will agree to, so we need to find a solution that will limit the damage for us as a group, for Ireland as a nation, and for the association future of football in Ireland”.
He continued: “We don’t know what the consequences would be if we don’t play the game. It’s two choices, and it’s kind of a situation you can’t win.”
Courell revealed the request from players to remove media obligations came out of a meeting on Friday, when it became “clear that they felt uncomfortable in this environment dealing with all of the respective questions that were coming to them that were not about football”.
He said they will wear black armbands “in recognition of all the lives lost in the conflict”, and that there will be “elements of the pre-match ceremony” that will “not be partaken in by the Republic of Ireland”.
