Poor judgement.
When Luxembourg rocked up to the Aviva Stadium in March of 2021 to face Stephen Kenny’s Ireland side in a World Cup qualifier, few gave the minnows a chance.
But they came away with a shock 1-0 win, in what was probably the low point of Kenny’s reign.
The man who got the goal that evening was the country’s top scorer, Gerson Rodrigues.
He is now at the centre of a controversial matter for his side and manager.
Rodrigues recently lost an appeal against his 18-month suspended sentence for assaulting a former girlfriend in 2022, but has continued to be selected by boss Luc Holtz.
Ahead of this evening’s game against Ireland, Holtz was asked by the Irish Independent whether the controversy was a distraction for the team, before an FLF media officer answered for him.
He said: “The coach said that the focus is only on the team, anything that’s not on the pitch will not distract the players.”
Holtz was then pressed for answer, which was translated as: “There is nothing that interests the team or the coach, the focus is on the pitch, anything that’s not on the pitch will not distract the team.
When asked whether this meant that they were condoning the domestic abuse, press officer Marc Diederich said: “No, it’s not OK. Nobody says that. But he got a second chance from the court and we gave him also a second chance.
“But we said clearly to him, it should never happen again. That’s the reason.”
There were protests at the Stade de Luxembourg over the selection of Rodrigues, during their 1-0 loss to Slovenia on Friday.
The FLF subsequently released a statement apologising for their response: “We sincerely apologise to all those involved. We re-affirm our commitment to guaranteeing full freedom of opinion for all fans of football and our national team, whether outside or inside a football stadium.
“We are drawing the necessary lessons from this at the board of directors to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future. We hope that many of our supporters will attend the Luxembourg-Republic of Ireland match next Tuesday.”
