FAI insists Heimir Hallgrimsson was number one target as new era begins

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