Sir, – On last Friday’s Six One News, Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan sounded like a man determined to convince the nation that “there is nothing to see here”. Commenting on the news that Uefa had approved the FAI’s request to hold the October 4th match against Israel in a “neutral venue”, overseas and behind closed doors, the Minister insisted “the most important thing here is that the players are left alone, that management is left alone, and the officers of the FAI are left alone. The decision is now made, in the rules that are laid down by Uefa, and I think that should be respected.”But if this decision is solely a matter between the FAI and Uefa, one wonders why the Minister felt the need to hammer the news home with a press statement?The Minister’s choice of wording in his wish that “the players” should be “left alone” was unwise, given that numerous stakeholders have observed that this is literally what the Government and the FAI have done; abandoning the players to make an individual decision of conscience on whether to line out in a deeply unpopular match against a team representing a genocidal state.Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has observed that it is “unfair for the players to be in this position”, while defender Séamus Coleman has said “it should have been dealt with above us ... I don’t think we should be in this position. Absolutely not.”It is no solution for our players to be “left alone” on the horns of a dilemma, and despite the speed and force of the Minister’s soundbite, I suspect this matter will return to trouble him. – Yours, etc,Betty Purcell,Mount Argus Rd,Dublin 6W.