Strong sense of FAI disappointment

Senior FAI officials reacted cautiously last night to the news that the Government no longer believes it is in a position to fund the building of Stadium Ireland and that it will be seeking instead to raise the required funds from the private sector.

The association's general secretary, Mr Brendan Menton, said only that the organisation would "attempt to get as much information as possible before considering the matter when the board of management meets on Friday. We would expect to give a substantial response after that".

It was conceded by others involved in the association, however, that there was a strong sense of disappointment at this latest development with a source conceding that the announcement was "bad news full stop".

There is still clearly a hope within the association that the levels of private funding required to proceed with even a dramatically scaled back stadium might be found if the Taoiseach remains committed to raising it. But as one source put it, "there is no great optimism about it".

Mr Simon Lyons, the Campaign Director for the joint bid by Ireland and Scotland to host the European Championship in 2008 maintained that the lack of direct funding from the Government need not be a major blow to the bid. Insisting that there are still funding issues to be resolved in relation to some of the stadiums included in rival bids too, he said: "We do not mind where the money comes from to build the stadium and if the Taoiseach is confident that the money can be secured then this needn't be a big factor at all."

However, there was considerable dissatisfaction in Scotland that the Government here had once again failed to deliver on its stated commitment to the bid.

A number of members of the Scottish Parliament were said to have privately expressed their anger at the situation.