IRELAND will face Israel as planned despite a player withdrawing from the squad due to not wanting to be involved in the fixture.
The fate of the game, scheduled to take place in Hungary on Sunday, was cast into doubt after a pre-match press conference and training session were postponed on Saturday morning.
But at a delayed media briefing on Saturday afternoon, FAI CEO David Courell confirmed that the game will proceed following a vote amongst the squad.
That is despite Courell acknowledging that an unnamed player had approached Heimir Hallgrimsson to say that they didn’t want to be involved.
While widespread reports claimed that goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu had expressed his unwillingness to be involved in the game, the identity of the player was not confirmed while they have left the squad.
Courell said: “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.
“It was another four hours of conversations, predominantly amongst the players themselves, but also at times with the coaching staff and at times with the executive.
“A lot of positions presented.
“I think it’s 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.
“Within the last maybe 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 fulfill the fixtures.”
Prior to Thursday’s defeat to Kosovo, Dara O’Shea, captain in the absence of Nathan Collins, had intimated that the players would use a team meeting on Friday night to consider gestures for Sunday’s game.
And it was confirmed during Saturday’s press conference that the squad would wear black armbands “in recognition of all lives lost in the conflict.”
The squad would also not be removing themselves from media obligations for the rest of the window as well as “elements of the pre-match ceremony.”
And there will be a charitable donation to be made, comprising of the players’ match fees and revenue from the home game against Austria in Dublin on Thursday.
The decision came after a chaotic morning that saw a scheduled press conference and training session postponed.
The press conference was due to take place in Debrecen in Hungary, where the game is taking place, on Saturday morning at 9:15am Irish time.
But that was pushed back, with RTE reporting that the squad was expected to issue a statement outlining its position on playing the fixture as well as the return game in Serbia next week.
It was reported that, 15 minutes before the press conference was due to start, media were told that it was delayed until after training.
UEFA were informed of a further delay with the panel still to travel from their team hotel to the Nagyerdei Stadium.
Shortly before 11:30am Irish time, media decamped from the stadium to the team hotel, where players were discussing an approach to the game with officials.
Two hours later, at 1:30pm Irish time, it was revealed that the training session would be taking place at 2:45pm Irish time, with the postponed press conference at 2:30pm Irish time.