Ireland beat Israel amid a bleak farce that leaves everyone feeling bitter and betrayed

From the Irish point of view, Saipan was a tragedy. But at least nobody died. For the rest of the world it was a comedy. A bunch of drunk Irishmen running around on an island. Then, the only sober Irishman – his head explodes!Debrecen was a bleak farce that leaves everyone feeling bitter and betrayed. If there are any laughs, they are mostly trollish and malignant and at Ireland’s expense.On Sunday night the squad played a game against Israel that about a third of them had voted on Saturday not to play. So much for all for one and one for all. After long stressful days trapped in a situation over which they had little control, the Irish team focused grimly on the one thing they still could control. They took out a week’s worth of pent-up frustration on the Israeli team. It took just 25 minutes for Ran-Ben Shimon’s side to be utterly destroyed. READ MOREIn normal circumstances we would be talking about it as one of Ireland’s best ever performances, a win that demonstrated the further development and maturing of a promising team. But it will take a long time to understand the true impact of everything that happened this week. A few days ago Heimir Hallgrímsson had suggested hopefully that coming through this test together could be the ultimate bonding experience. Too many people were feeling let down by too many other people to have any confidence in that. The FAI had more than seven months to prepare for it, yet somehow, the day before the game, the question of whether the game would actually be played was still not settled. The players – who should never have been the ones with the responsibility of making this decision, let alone under the gaze of the whole world – were locked in a second day of argument over whether to go ahead.Gavin Bazunu will be lionised by the pro-boycott camp, and vilified by the pro-Israeli media. Unfortunately, some of those who see Bazunu as a hero will see the players who went ahead and played as cowards. That this could happen was immediately obvious to Bazunu’s team-mates when he told them on Friday that he didn’t want to play the game. Some were angry and at least one told him so forcefully to his face. That player later went to Bazunu to apologise. Anger often masks underlying confusion and fear. None of the players wanted to be in this position. There is no one villain in this story at whom people can point the finger. It was a mess seven months in the making and many people contributed many mistakes. Hallgrímsson, for instance, said he had spoken to all the players individually to establish their willingness to play. On Saturday it emerged he had only spoken to the outfield players. The Republic of Ireland team, wearing black armbands in recognition for all the lives lost in the conflict in Gaza, bow their heads during the Israeli national anthem before the Nations League game against Israel. Photograph: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images Had Hallgrímsson actually talked to Bazunu before the call-up he might have received a firm commitment to play, which the player might have been reluctant to go back on. Indeed, the goalkeeper joined up with the squad expecting to be involved in all four matches. As Hallgrímsson said on Saturday: “It’s not like it was a surprise we were playing these matches. If you don’t feel comfortable playing, of course you reject coming into the camp.” But, as David Courell remarked in the same press conference, this was a dynamic situation. “What happens when the squad goes into camp, the games become closer, the intensity increases, the pressure, the scrutiny. People can change. People’s sentiment on the subject may strengthen,” Courell said. Towards the end of last week, Bazunu was having doubts. The squad had deliberately left their meeting about the Israel game until the Friday, wanting to focus first on the Kosovo game. That the story blew up on Saturday morning was to a large extent because they had left the decisive meeting so late in the week. The FAI had indicated that a joint statement from the players would be circulated on Saturday morning before the manager’s press conference scheduled for 10.15am. But Bazunu had not signed the statement on Friday night, and by Saturday morning the issue was still not settled. With no joint statement, and unable to actually confirm whether all the players would be available against Israel, the FAI was forced to postpone the press conference. Jack Moylan slots in Ireland's third goal against Israel in Debrecen. Photograph: Inpho That signalled to everybody that something significant was happening behind the scenes, and once that had happened it was only a matter of time before the shape of the story emerged. And for the first time since the Thierry Henry handball, the FAI had become a world news story. Again the country marvelled at the incompetence of the FAI, who had managed to create a divided team. From its point of view, it’s easy for protesters to say “boycott!” but it’s the FAI that has to pick up the pieces. A boycott would have blown a hole in the budget, risked further “unspecified sanctions” from Uefa and potentially led to further unpleasant and unforeseen consequences, as the furious Israelis looked for ways to retaliate.Such is the view that ultimately prevailed in the FAI and, looking at the state of its finances, you can understand its eagerness to avoid risk. Yet you wonder how much that threat of “unspecified sanctions” really could have amounted to if Ireland had said clearly at the outset they would not play games against a national team that was in breach of multiple Uefa statutes, and demanded to be assigned different opponents. [ TV View: World feed man avoids main talking points as Ireland beat Israel with stripped-down TV coverageOpens in new window ]This was something the FAI never dared to test. But although it had often been said in the build-up to this game that “the result does not matter”, in the end it felt like it did matter. Not only the FAI, but many of those who will be at the Aviva on Thursday night will have felt a lot of relief at the result on Sunday.