The FAI has declared that they are "fully supportive" of manager Heimir Hallgrimsson and confirmed that the Icelander will remain in the job until the end of the current World Cup qualifying campaign.
The national men's team manager is under pressure following a disastrous opening to the campaign in which Ireland took just one point from two games, including a humiliating 2-1 defeat to lowest seeds Armenia on Tuesday evening in Yerevan.
In a wide-ranging interview with RTE Sport's Tony O'Donoghue, FAI chief executive David Courell, the head of the association, confirmed that Hallgrimsson would remain in place throughout the games in October and November.
"It didn't work out for us on the night, that is football, but the reality is we're only two games into a six-game campaign," said Courell.
"I'm not naive, that is a massive stumbling block for us and it will make our campaign significantly harder to qualify. But as much as you can have a loss one day, you can have a win the next day.
"We've got four games left to go and we're fully supportive of Heimir seeing out the campaign. Only at the end of that will we take stock."
It was suggested to Courell that there appeared to be a lack of understanding within the team in Yerevan, or that they were simply unable to follow the instructions given to them from the management, and he was asked whether the performance had changed the FAI's perception of Hallgrimsson's suitability to the role for the future.
"I've spoken with him, as you would expect, and we've agreed that at the end of the campaign we'll revisit what the future may hold," said Courell.
"I appreciate I'm CEO of the federation, but I'm also an Irish football fan and I think we're all disappointed about the result.
"If you cast your mind back to Saturday evening [the 2-2 draw with Hungary] in the Aviva, I thought the team showed unbelievable fight in the cauldron that was the Aviva with the 12th man.
"The fans and supporters have been amazing and continue to be so for us, and we were on the road to Yerevan with a real sense of optimism."
So if the manager's position is going to remain as is, Courell was asked what was the most pressing issue in Irish football at the moment.
"Change," he replied. "I think it is broadly acknowledged that Irish football needs to change for the betterment of the game and that's why we're embarking on a transformation programme for the organisation.
"We are blessed to have fantastic staff here in the organisation and I want to thank them for their continued commitment and professionalism and I recognise it's difficult because unfortunately change brings about impacts," he added, referencing the start of a voluntary redundancy process starting within the FAI with the potential for some compulsory situations.
"I'm empathetic to that, but it is necessary to make sure that we're set up for the future, to make sure that we're strategically aligned, that we advance culturally and that we are in a better financial, more sustainable position moving forward," he added.
"We'll be launching our '26 through '29 strategy at the end of this year and that's been, I suppose, our our north star to help us build out that vision and we'll reveal that to the staff in due course."
Regarding the staff, Courell was criticised earlier this week as he was accused of snubbing a SIPTU meeting, which he clarified, and added he was willing to engage with the union regarding the entire process.
"So I would like to take the opportunity that some of the reporting yesterday was inaccurate," he stated.
"Just to be clear I did not, not show up for the meeting, we had communicated to them well in advance that I was not available at that time but they did still elect to proceed with the meeting.
"I have no objection to engaging with SIPTU, I have done over recent weeks, and I've committed to meeting with them next week, but I just want to correct any misinterpretation that I paid any disrespect to SIPTU, that's absolutely not the case."
There has been reports of a legal case being brought against the association by former women's manager Eileen Gleeson, regarding alleged discrimination, but naturally Courell was unwilling to go into too much detail on the issue, however, he did make a commitment to continue to grow the girls' and women's game throughout the country
"It's an ongoing legal situation so there's only so much I can say," said Courell.
"What I would say and what I want to make sure that every young girl, mum, dad out there in the country that participates in our sport realises that the FAI and Irish football places a huge emphasis on the development of the women's and girls' game.
"We are very much committed to continuing to raise standards in the women's game to reflect the unbelievable trajectory of growth that's been on and the reality is we are the 12th highest investor across UEFA out of the 55 federations."
However, on the topic of equal pay for the men's and women's managers, Courell referenced "market differentials" in relation to the situation.
"They do the same role in the same game but they are in distinct different roles in effect," he said.
"I think that's testament to the growth that it (the women's game) has experienced, but we do need to recognise there are market differentials between those roles, but we as I've said before are committed to continuing to support the women's game and continue that trajectory."
Hallgrimsson also spoke briefly about recently appointed director of football John Martin and his role regarding international managers, while he also lauded the ongoing work regarding their push for academy funding from the government, UEFA and FIFA.
"As director of football, he (John Martin) will be the most senior football voice in the organisation and will play a key part in defining what the future of all of our national teams looks like," said Courell.
"Over the last 12-18 months we've had sustained engagement [regarding funding for academies], we've brought it into the political debate, we've managed to get it included in the programme for government.
"So that is very much at the final stages now, we'll be submitting our final proposals to government in the next couple of weeks.
"Trust is strong within government, we've delivered on our MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) over recent years which has built a good body of trust, but we also need to continue to earn that trust and that's what we're committed to do."
As for Roy Keane's comments about the organisation unable to run a party in a brewery, and the potential of the former midfielder ever working for the association in the future?
"Roy's been a phenomenal ambassador for the game, brilliant player, captain, assistant manager and he's entitled to his opinion," said Courell.
"Who knows what the future holds, but right now full support for Heimir."
Watch the full interview on RTE Sport's YouTube channel
