FAI suggest new Ireland boss is almost finalised

"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