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I’ve been very quiet about today’s game against Israel. I don’t think the wider situation needs any more noise and instead I’ve tried to put my focus towards the positivity the Ireland U21s gave us on Friday night - a reminder that there are still positive things to talk about in Irish football. But I do feel obliged to say something about Finn Azaz. Over the last few days, Finn has received a lot of stick online because of his family background and connections to Israel. Whatever anyone’s views are on everything surrounding this fixture, I don’t think it’s fair for him to be personally targeted because of his heritage. The quotes in this post are from Finn speaking after making his Ireland debut, when he explained how much representing this country meant to him and his family. People seem to forget that this is a player who chose to represent Ireland. He didn’t get his first Ireland call-up until U21 level at 22 years of age, yet since coming into the setup he has made it very clear how much wearing the green shirt means to him. Even something as simple as the national anthem says a lot. We often hear conversations about players born outside Ireland and whether they know or sing it. Finn didn’t come through the Irish underage system, but he clearly made the effort to learn it and sings it proudly before games. And from everything I’ve ever been made aware of around this Ireland group, Finn is an extremely well-liked member of the squad. This is a group united by one goal: representing Ireland, and his teammates have nothing but good things to say about him and still has full backing from his teammates. Yesterday and today will undoubtedly have been uncomfortable for him given some of what has been said online. Someone with family connections to a country involved in such an awful situation may have their own personal perspective, but that doesn’t change the fact that Finn has consistently shown how much representing Ireland means to him. He doesn’t want to be stuck in the middle of a political argument. He wants to play football. He wants to represent Ireland. Hopefully tonight we get to see some Finn Azaz magic in a green shirt.