Standfirst: key facts and context
Brian Kerr used two words. Legitimate and heroic, to defend Gavin Bazunu on Virgin Media this week. The former Republic of Ireland manager said he had spoken to the goalkeeper directly. Only hours before going on air. That Brian Kerr Gavin Bazunu interview turned a quiet week of international football into the story everyone was talking about.
- Brian Kerr called Bazunu’s stance “a very legitimate decision” during his appearance on Virgin Media.
- Kerr said he had been in touch with Bazunu. He said he was “feeling quite low and shunned by some of the players and by the FAI.”
- Ireland’s Nations League fixture against Austria is the match at the centre of the row. Bazunu’s involvement remains unclear.
Brian Kerr comments: how it happened
Kerr appeared on Virgin Media shortly after Ireland’s squad held a meeting that morning. He told viewers he had spoken to Bazunu only hours earlier. The goalkeeper, he said, was “feeling quite low and shunned by some of the players and by the FAI.”
Kerr did not stop at sympathy either. He criticised anyone pushing Bazunu towards the exit, saying on air: “And it has been suggested to him that it would be better if he left the squad. Which I think is disgraceful. They have a match against Austria to play and why shouldn’t he be involved in that game.”
The Daily Record carried the broadcast first. Our full report on the Ireland situation has the exchange in full, including the wider context around Bazunu’s treatment this week. Kerr named the treatment of Bazunu as wrong instead of talking around it. That honesty turned a routine television slot into the week’s biggest story.
The expert angle: Kerr calls decision heroic
Kerr managed the Republic of Ireland himself. When he speaks about the squad, people in Irish football tend to listen. Asked about where Bazunu now stands within the squad, Kerr did not hedge and told viewers plainly, “I think it’s a very legitimate decision for him [Bazunu] to take. I think it’s a heroic decision.”
The Brian Kerr-Gavin Bazunu comments landed hard because of that managerial history with the national team. A pundit calling a player’s absence heroic reads differently, coming from a man who once picked the Ireland squad himself.
Kerr also explained, in the same interview, why Bazunu had missed that morning’s discussions among the squad; he added, “He wasn’t, by the way, at the meeting earlier. He wasn’t told about the meeting or involved in the meeting this morning. So he wasn’t involved in the vote.” He went on: “They presumed they knew his vote. They didn’t bring him into discussions, which sounds amazing to me. Sad.”
These are Kerr’s own accounts from the studio. Not a confirmed record of what actually happened behind closed doors. Neither the FAI nor Bazunu has addressed the claims in public since. Readers should treat the meeting and any vote as reported by Kerr rather than as settled fact.
What happens next for Ireland and international duty
Ireland’s next assignment is the Nations League match against Austria. The very fixture Kerr had in mind when he asked why Bazunu should be left out of contention. Whether the goalkeeper features will say plenty about how the squad and the FAI choose to move on from a difficult week.
For Celtic supporters watching from Glasgow, the row is a reminder that international weeks bring their own pressures away from Parkhead. The club has enough on its plate domestically, from recent form under Martin O’Neill to looking ahead to returning players once the fixtures resume.
Kerr’s intervention has not settled the row. It has given Bazunu a senior voice in his corner before Ireland travel to face Austria.
