FAI Director of Football Marc Canham has claimed that he didn't mean to mislead anyone with his "end of April and existing contractual obligations" comments from earlier in the year.
This week, the FAI ended their long search for a new Ireland boss by employing a left-field choice, Heimir Hallgrímsson, on Thursday.
The Irish governing body had been searching for a Stephen Kenny replacement since November, with different deadlines missed throughout the search.
For example, Canham said they planned to bring a new manager in around early April, but there were contractual obligations that they had to abide by.
The deadline was missed, and as a result, Ireland were without a boss heading into the international window. John O'Shea was employed as a stop-gap and took over the team once again in June.
Many people became fed up with the process in the end, with fans and pundits slamming the various parties in the FAI for their roles in the saga.
Canham, speaking this week at Hallgrímsson's Ireland unveiling on Thursday, claimed it was never his intention to take fans of the Irish team for a ride by offering a deadline initially.
The FAI chief also admits that he shouldn't have communicated a deadline in March.
FAI director of football Marc Canham and League of Ireland director Mark Scanlon, (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)"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 think, "let's deliberately mislead anyone." Never, ever was that part of our conversation, decision-making, or discussion.
"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 who was under contract.
"The lesson for us was that we shouldn't have communicated that we hoped to make an announcement at this point."
Many managerial targets were linked to the Ireland job, but the left-field choice of Heimir Hallgrímsson caught everyone by surprise.
Canham also claims that despite the Icelandic native's name not being at the top of target lists in media outlets, he was the FAI's number one choice for the role.
"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; he was committed to the (Concacaf) Nations League and Copa America. The lesson for us was that we shouldn't have communicated that we hoped to make an announcement at this point."
Hallgrímsson's first game as Ireland's manager will be against England this coming September in the Nations League.
