"Existing contractual obligations mean that we are not in a position to announce any further details at this point."
The words of FAI Director of Football, Marc Canham, to start the press conference, introducing John O'Shea as the Republic of Ireland's interim head coach for the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland.
The FAI committed to an April announcement for the new permanent head coach last week, and today’s assertion by Canham appears to confirm that the association have someone lined up to take the team into the summer games and beyond.
When asked for further clarification regarding the upcoming appointment, Canham said that it was not possible at this juncture, as he wanted to maintain confidentiality, and for other practical reasons.
"As I’ve said before, the process has been ongoing for a period of time and we have given a series of updates, quite recently really," said Canham.
"We’re really near the end of the process and that’s confidential so I can’t answer the question directly, unfortunately, but we are really at the advanced stage of the process. For different practical reasons, including contracts, we can’t confirm that until early April.
"We’re just not going to talk about candidates or even the number of people.
"One is to make sure we need to respect the process and make sure that it is confidential. Two is that we need to give as much respect as possible to the candidates who have been in the process and remain in the process. We just can’t comment on numbers at any stage unfortunately."
"We absolutely want to be in Euro 2028 and that is absolutely clear for the head coach."
There has been a lot of talk about the type of candidate that the FAI are looking for in a new head coach, and while Canham stressed that the association have a set of criteria, the new coach will have full control with the objective of getting the most out of the team.
"Just to be clear on style of play, the head coach is coming in and their job is to get the best out of the team, maximise performance of players and ultimately win games, and that is absolutely clear," said Canham.
"We have a set criteria in looking for a head coach to come in add value to it, but absolutely they have ownership and autonomy for doing that, and that is really clear.
"There has to be a clear division of responsibilities and the head coach is absolutely responsible for it, and we are clear on that.
"We are looking at coaches who come into our thinking, and they add value to it, enhance that."
Canham stated that he wanted the new head coach to hit the ground running by proving competitive in the upcoming Nations League campaign, and on into the 2025 calendar, which will bring the World Cup qualifying campaign for the 2026 tournament.
But ultimately, the FAI are eyeing qualification for Euro 2028 and Canham emphasised that the new coach will be very clear regarding what is expected of them.
Canham also emphasised that the new regime would require results to come relatively quickly to improve rankings and future seedings but did, however, add that there is a process to how that might come around.
"We need to take up our rankings, because rankings are really important when it comes to qualification campaigns as we need good seedings to get the best possible opportunities to qualify," said Canham.
"We want to have a really positive UEFA Nations League, we want to be competitive in that to make as much progress as possible and we want to have a really competitive World Cup qualification.
"We know that is challenging, although the World Cup has expanded in terms of more teams, we know that UEFA places still remain the same.
"Ultimately, which may seem long term, we absolutely want to be in Euro 2028 and that is absolutely clear for the head coach, and we are working towards that and building that process.
"We want results quickly but we know there is a process to go through to achieve that, and the head coach that comes in will be clear on that."
