FAI director of football Marc Canham said it was never the association's intent to "deliberately mislead anyone" as they finally unveiled new Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson on Thursday afternoon.
The 57-year-old's surprise appointment was confirmed on Wednesday, bringing to an end an eight-month search for Stephen Kenny's successor.
Hallgrimsson was Iceland's joint-manager when they stunned England in Euro 2016, and was most recently in charge of Jamaica, resigning from that post only last month after they exited the Copa America.
In March, Canham said "existing contractual obligations" were holding up the process of bringing in a new boss, but committed to an April announcement. That never transpired, with several names subsequently rumoured to be in the running, including Gus Poyet, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Roy Keane, Willie Sagnol, Anthony Barry and Chris Coleman.
However Canham insisted today that Hallgrimsson has been the FAI's number one target since spring.
"Contrary to what has been written and said it was never, ever our intent to deliberately mislead anyone," he said. "Never, ever did we sit in a room talking about what we were doing and thinking, 'let's deliberately mislead anyone'. Never, ever was that part of our conversation, decision making, discussion ever.
"We made that decision in March, we obviously communicated at that point that we hoped to make an appointment in early April. Heimir was one of those people that was under contract.
"The learning from us was the we shouldn't have communicated that we hoped to make an announcement at this point."
"We made the decision that Heimir was our number one candidate. We hoped to conclude that process, it wasn't possible. Heimir was consistent all the way through that he was committed to the (Concacaf) Nations League and Copa America. The learning from us was the we shouldn't have communicated that we hoped to make an announcement at this point."
A lengthy press conference began with FAI interim CEO David Courell acknowledging Hallgrimsson's unveiling came during "a difficult week" in the wake of the RTÉ/Sunday Independent investigation into alleged unwanted or inappropriate sexual advances on former players from FAI coaches in the 1990s.
Hallgrimsson's arrival comes three days after the story was detailed in print and on television, while today's press conference started just two hours after Eileen Gleeson sat down in Norwich to discuss her Ireland team's Euro 2025 qualifier against England tomorrow night.
Courell said the announcement had to come in the middle of the women's international window "due to a range of factors", later elaborating: "We didn't want to go head-to-head with the women's national team's fixtures. We're away against England on Friday, at home to France on Tuesday. Obviously it's a two-stage announcement so the reality is Heimir, we wanted to make sure he was up and running with as much advance preparation time for September as possible. We couldn't wait a further week, unfortunately."
And what about the man himself?
Hallgrimisson will spend the next few days getting to know Dublin as he prepares to move here for the job. His contract runs up until the end of the 2026 World Cup qualiifation campaign, and though he has yet to finalise his back-room team, the Icelandic 57-year-old is keen to keep coaches John O'Shea, Paddy McCarthy and Glenn Whelan involved in some capacity.
"There hasn't been much time to think about that," he said when asked about his backroom set-up.
"I talked to the guys on the board and they all praised the current staff. I talked to Seamus Coleman this morning. He praised the staff a lot, and the same with John O'Shea.
"I don't come with demands to have staff with me here. I think culture-wise it's good to have the Irish staff continuing so I am pretty flexible, adjustable, and I think I am in an environment that people around me know more about things than I do. Hopefully everything will work out as smoothly as possible."
Hallgrimsson had a contract with Jamaica up to the 2026 World Cup. He chose to resign in order to take the reins with the Boys in Green, and is confident the raw elements are here to build a team capable of getting back to major tournaments.
"When you have some interest from different areas you of course think about the pros and cons. In this case there were a lot of positives," he said.
"Young players that have been given time. So they are young players with international experience. That's the most exciting thing.
"What made my decision was the professionalism from the board. They showed me a big respect even though I knew that they might go for someone else. I insisted that I wanted to finish the Nations League with Jamaica and then the Copa America. They were so professional and that was the most appealing thing, working for these people. I hope that it's going to be fruitful."
