The Football Association of Ireland's chief executive, John Delaney, has urged supporters to put any ill feelings that they harbour towards Roy Keane behind them.
Former Manchester United midfielder Keane is expected to be confirmed as the Republic of Ireland's assistant manager to Martin O'Neill over the coming days.
During his playing career, Keane was involved in a bust-up with both manager Mick McCarthy and Delaney regarding the standard of the training facilities available to the Irish players at the 2002 World Cup in Saipan, while he has since been critical of some of the latter's decision.
"Saipan is 11 or 12 years ago - that's a long time ago. We all make comments at certain times that we regret, certainly I have. Up until last week I had never sat down with Roy because when he was with the Irish team he would have been a player and dealings wouldn't have been with the chief executive," he told Sky Sports News.
"We met last week and I was very, very impressed with him. He wants to come. He's an Irishman and was a great footballer. Martin wanted him to be his assistant and I come from a school where you must support the backroom team that he wants around him. It was Martin's choice and I had no problem with that.
"We spoke about the past for 30 seconds, but there was an agreement for the sake of Irish football that we'd all work together. People need to draw a line in the sand and move on. It's gone - now is the time to stop talking about Saipan."
Keane made 67 appearances for Ireland at senior international level.
Liam Apicella
