Phil Egan

This statement, it's the next phase of this.

We've obviously talked about what are the government going to do about it?

What are the players going to do about it?

What are the FAI going to do about it?

This is just the next phase.

There's going to be more developments, I'd imagine, between now and the 4th of October.

Yeah, there's also within their statement, they obviously have referenced that they were in consultation with the FA and Palestine and how they are understanding in terms of the sporting merits of, you know, the penalties of what might happen if Ireland don't fulfil the fixtures.

And that's something the FAI talked about earlier this year.

They said back in February they were always going to fulfil these fixtures.

There is going to be a lot of games like this.

It probably won't really get going in terms of quality.

the spectacular games we're looking for probably won't get going to the last 16, but there is still a few decent games to look at.

Obviously, the fact that the opening ceremony, the first game was at the Azteca Stadium, which is the most iconic venue in World Cup history.

It's hosted two World Cup finals in 70 and 86.

70 Pele wins, 86 Maradona wins.

Two of the best footballers of all time have played there and won World Cups.

So it was actually, when I was watching, I was thinking, actually, I'd love to play more games in Mexico, to be honest.

Absolutely.

And Mexico, you know, it's not their best team, but actually the fact that they have home advantage, they have such a good record in that stadium because it's played at an altitude and opposition teams can struggle there.

So it was a comfortable win.