Watch live: Ireland players ‘have been thrown under the bus by the FAI’ over Israel matches, committee hears

And with that, the meeting ends. Some interesting lines out of it, not least the claim that the Ireland manager had a one-hour sit-down with Gavin Bazunu in August. And also John Martin’s admission that nobody spoke to the goalkeepers before the Israel game. This was not the impression given on Saturday in the various media dealings with the Irish management.

Alan Kelly asks why there was two votes by the players. Cooke says it was to get greater clarity around the decision. “It was felt by everyone in the room that greater clarity was needed.” Kelly says a vote was taken, ye knew the position of the players, why do a second vote?

“The view in the room was that greater clarity was needed. The manager, the captain, the players, ourselves, it was felt by the people in the room that a second vote was required.”

Kelly asks Courell to clarify.

“The players took the vote. And it was felt that now with those numbers, in light of knowing the amount of people who were against playing the game, would it affect anyone’s decision? We wanted them to be armed with full information so that we could have a confident read on the room before we made our decision. And again, we will own that. We took the decision to play the game.”

Kelly: “Was the much of a change in the second vote?”

Courell: “We’re not going to get into that.”

Kelly: “It’s kind of critical.”

Courell: “We’re not getting into that.”

Peter Cleere asks what they would change about how they handled everything. Courell speaks for a while about how difficult the situation and says that when they reflect on it in a few weeks, they might find things they would have done differently. But he says he suspects not much could have changed where things ended up.

Daniel Ennis criticises John Martin for not making the Irish players aware of the record of racism from Israel fans. He gets Courell to agree that Israel fans have a history of racism, as adjudicated by FIFA. But Courell does not agree that the reaction of the FAI should be to not engage with the opposition country.

Courell asks to respond to Byrne’s accusations about a lack of leadership from the FAI and the claim they’ve brought shame on the country. “We are all here to do our best for Irish football. I strongly reject any claim that we have brought shame on the game.”

"You're a football woman. You know the game."

FAI CEO David Courell responds to Sinn Fein TD Joanna Byrne after expressing a belief that the organisation has done lasting damage to Irish football by playing Israel.

Joanna Byrne asks Martin about the issue of whether any players were threatened by their agents about playing the game. Martin replies that no, as far as he knows, that didn’t happen.

Byrne asks Courell about the Adam Idah incident and Courell says he understands the players are reviewing the video.

“Considering the racism incident, would you not go to ask government to underwite any financial fall-out from not going ahead with the fixture?” Courell replies no, the decision has been left to them and they have taken it.

Malcom Byrne asks about the friendly against Qatar in the context of human rights abuses there. Courell says obviously the FAI considered it but there were certain requirements for that window. in the hope of Ireland being at the World Cup, he says they had to play a team that was going to the World Cup, which narrowed the field.

Evanne Ní Chuillin asks if there have been any investigations into underage coaches this year. Aoife Rafferty says there has been one but can’t comment any further.

The questions go back around. Barry Brennan asks what the decision would have been had the players’ vote gone against playing. Courell says it wouldn’t have been possible to play without 11 men. Also says there is no plan for a vote this week.

Richard Boyd Barrett’s turn. He starts of talking about genocide and it being the opposite of what sport represents. He quotes the Israeli captain as being proud of their state and their soldiers. “Is that not a reason, as well as the abuse that was thrown at our players and the chants for the IDF, is that not a reason to reconsider playing the second game?”

Courell: “I think we’ve been clear throughout that there are many elements of this situation that we are uncomfortable with. I know people want us to be a vehicle for change but we are charged with the future of Irish football. As things stand, I don’t see us changing our position on playing the second game.”

"I know people want us to be a vehicle for broader statement and change but the reality is we are tasked to do a particular role to protect the interest of Irish football."

FAI CEO David Courell explains why the Republic of Ireland will play the second match with Israel.

Murphy asks why Hallgrimsson retracted his use of the word genocide in his press conference. “There are multiple viewpoints on this particular topic, including with our own dressing room.”

Paul Murphy’s turn now. He pays tribute to Gavin Bazunu. Then he asks Courell if he will say that Israel are committing genocide in Gaza. Courell says he’s not qualified to adjudicate that.

Garry Gannon is up now. He asks if anyone from the FAI threatened defamation proceedings against Virgin Media. Paul Cooke answers that he contacted Virgin looking for clarification but never threatened defamation proceedings.

Ruth Coppinger is up now. She accuses the FAI of deceiving people, now that is has emerged that nobody spoke to the goalkeepers. Why was Gavin Bazunu excluded?

Martin: “He wasn’t excluded. The players went back to their rooms and spoke to loved ones. They came back and took a vote. Gavin didn’t take part in the vote. We assumed his vote was a no vote when we tallied the votes.”

Kelly: “At any point did you go to the government and ask them would they underwrite any shortfall as a result of not playing the matches?”

Courell: “No, we didn’t.”

Kelly: “You said David that there was a consensus the day before and then this one player changed his mind. You said the manager had an hour-long chat with that player in August. But in a press conference on Saturday, the manager said he didn’t speak to the goalkeepers.”

Courell: “That was in terms of the call-ups. The meeting in August was a general catch-up.”

Kelly: “In the week leading up to this, was there an individual check-in with each of the players.”

John Martin: “Heimir is on record as saying he spoke to the outfield players.”

Kelly: “So who spoke to the goalkeepers?”

Martin: “Truthfully, it appears nobody talked to the goalkeepers.”

"Who spoke to the goalkeepers?"

"Truthfully it doesn't appear like anyone spoke to the goalkeepers."

Deputy Alan Kelly TD asks FAI Director of Football John Martin about individual consultation with Republic of Ireland players prior to the Israel game.

Alan Kelly is up now. Says the manner in which Uefa dealt with the Israel game is a stain and unacceptable.

Kelly asks Courell about the idea of pivoting from child to adult safeguarding. Courell seems surprised by the word pivot.

Kelly reiterates that he can’t understand why Courell won’t answer certain questions, given that other FAI officials are happy to do so.

Senator Mark Duffy is up now. He asks about the mental health of the Ireland players after the weekend. Aoife Rafferty says the FAI is acutely aware of the need to support them. She cites the medical team and the addition of a clinical psychologist to the staff for this window.

John Martin says the group dynamic is exceptionally strong. Says that if anyone saw the departure lounge in Hungary on Sunday night, they would see a group that is together.

Out of the clear blue sky, Carrigy asks if there will ever be an all-Ireland league. John Martin says it’s not on the agenda in the short-term.

He asks Courell a general question about safeguarding and Sport Ireland about FAI governance and any concerns they might have. Courell welcomes the opportunity to filibuster for a while.

Michael Carrigy (FG) is up now. He’s taking an interminable amount of time to get to a question. We’ll let you know if he does.

This is interesting claim. Courell says that the player - Bazunu - had a one-hour sitdown with Heimir Hallgrimsson in his club in August to talk about the Israel game. Up to now, we were under the impression that he hadn’t been asked before the camp at all.

Peter Cleere is up now. He asks Courell about players being asked before the camp whether they wanted to play. Courell says 13 or 14 were asked immediately after the draw and they said they’d go by the wishes of the FAI. Around 25 players were asked over the summer as well. They had meetings with the players and there was consensus that the games would be played.

Cleere then has a bit of a kerfuffle with FAI lawyer Deirdre Ardagh over garda vetting.

Ennis asks Cooke about is comment that the FAI handled the situation quite well. Cooke goes back to the 68 per cent and stands by his claim.

Ennis asks if the numbers from the straw poll had been flipped, would the FAI have called the game off? It’s an interesting question but Courell swerves it.

Daniel Ennis subs in for Sinead Gibney. He asks about the vote between the players on Saturday morning. Who called it?

“It was the players themselves. Maybe including the staff. Certainly not the executive.”

Ennis: “Nine players did not want to play...”

Courell goes into the timeline again, rehashing what people mostly already know.

“One player said: ‘I’ve changed my mind, Gaffer.’ The players had a straw poll. That was not what decided whether to play the game. The FAI decided to play the game.”

Byrne asks Courell where the concerns for player welfare were over the weekend.

Courell: “I note that you were watching from home. The reality was that in the environment where we were, player welfare was paramount. No player travel alone... We are very satisfied that we wrapped around the player in question [Gavin Bazunu hasn’t been named here but it’s accepted that’s who he’s talking about]”

Cooke takes the opportunity to talk about the 68 per cent who voted for the game to go ahead. It’s an easy out for him. She asks him where his leadership was over the weekend. He falls back on the vote.

Cooke replies that he was there, he did an interview after the game, as he did after the EGM. Byrne starts talking about bubbles and ivory towers, letting Cooke slightly off the hook here. She’d be as well to make him answer a question.

Byrne asks Paul Cooke of he was “for real” in saying he thought the FAI handled the events of last week quite well.

Joanna Byrne: “I do believe there have been catastrophic failures from the FAI in terms of leadership over the past few months.”

The issue of sanctions for missing the game comes up.

Courell: “The challenge we have with regards to Uefa’s decision making on a rule breach is that it’s subject to a disciplinary hearing. So if I talk to someone in Uefa and ask what the probably sanctions are, they can’t say because they don’t know. It’s an independent committee who decides.”

Back to Israel. Courell says the FAI have had upwards of 20 meetings with Uefa in the past year about the game.

“It’s fair to say Uefa are sympathetic to the situation we found ourselves in. But they have to make their decisions int he context of the 55 members of their organisation.”

Byrne returns to a question posed by Ní Chuillin regarding his refusal to answer questions about historical abuse cases. Other FAI officials have answered questions on it at past hearings but Courell continues to say he doesn’t want to prejudice Garda investigations. Chairman Kelly takes a dim view of his stance.

Malcolm Byrne is up now. He asks Sport Ireland and the Department of Sport if they have governance concerns about the FAI and both replay that the FAI have made improvements.

Ní Chuillin: “There are three concerns so far in this meeting.”

Courell: “I’m not sure what the concern is.”

Ní Chuilinn: “The concern is that a man in a towel and nothing else came into the team room. The concern is that the Ireland women’s team, with quite a few young players, were stalked and harassed and the police were called. The concern is that Aoife Rafferty has no memory of what must have been a quite striking conversation.”

Ní Chuilinn brings up an incident in Budapest in 2023 when the Ireland women’s team were stalked and harassed and police were called.

Aoife Rafferty says she’s aware of the incident.

Ní Chuilinn: “Do the women’s team have security with them on international trips?”

Courell: “They do. It was doubled in 2025.”

Evanne Ní Chuilinn asks if any coaches who find themselves officiating at matches might not be Garda-vetted. John Martin says he doesn’t know but will find out.

Senator Alyson Comyn is back to safeguarding and asking about referees. She presses John Martin about a guarantee that all referees from the past four years have been fully vetted. Martin says he can’t say it for certain.

Courell: “This is a very specific area. We came in here expecting to answer questions on one area...”

Alan Kelly: “This is about safeguarding. This is part of it.”

Courell: “We can give a guarantee that all 1,400 referees in the system are fully vetted.”

Comyn: “And for the past three years?”

Courell: “I would have to revert on that.”

Brennan: “The players have been thrown under the bus by the FAI. And the FAI have been thrown under a juggernaut by UEFA. Why is that?”

Courell: “It’s simply because Uefa is a 52-member organisation. Sentiment is high in Ireland with regard to this issue but there are 51 other members.”

“A lot of questions there Deputy,” says Courell, “is there any one area you’d like me to address?” He goes on to say it’s not for the FAI to dictate government policy.

Brian Brennan (FG) is asking about the Israel game now. He asks what supports Gavin Bazunu got, who decided that the call to play would be left to the players and what happened during the game. He also asks about the timeline over the past year around the game. He’s grandstanding a bit now, talking about his own trip to Gaza and the kids playing football over there, very much getting into comment-not-a-question territory...

O’Sullivan asks if all referees in Irish soccer are Garda-vetted. John Martin assert that is the case. O’Sullivan asks if this was the case three years ago, Martin replies he’ll have to look into it.

O’Sullivan asks why the FAI’s safeguarding officer isn’t here. CEO David Courell points out that the association’s four most senior executives are here.

Chairman Alan Kelly (Labour) opens the meeting and we’re underway. Pádraig O’Sullivan is the first TD up. “Welcome everyone, here we go again...”

Welcome to the Irish Times liveblog of the FAI’s appearance in front of the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Communications, Culture and Sport. Proceedings will get underway in the next few minutes - all the main protagonists are in the lobby outside Committee Room 1 for now. As soon as they’re called in, we’ll let you know.