FAI may play 'home' games in Britain

SOCCER: FAI chief executive Fran Rooney insisted yesterday the Irish team could be playing their home games during the World Cup campaign in Britain unless either Croke Park becomes available for hire or the Government provides a firm and positive indication of how it intends to proceed on the issue of a new or refurbished stadium for major football and rugby matches.

Speaking in Frankfurt, where he will attend this afternoon's draw for the qualifying stages of the 2006 World Cup, Rooney maintained that FIFA had made it clear to the association in July that, in the present circumstances, they would not permit the continued use of temporary seating at Lansdowne Road for competitive matches.

No one from FIFA has confirmed this during the last few days, although one spokesman played down the urgency of the situation yesterday and said that it could be discussed in the New Year.

But, insisted Rooney, "their official, Walter Gagg, visited Dublin, looked at the ground and met with us afterwards. His position was completely clear, that there would be no further derogation in relation to the use of temporary seats there. What we are saying now is that unless the Government give us something solid to go back to FIFA and negotiate with then we will have to look at our options in relation to staging games elsewhere."

According to Rooney, the association would prefer to move their games to a large British city than play them in a Lansdowne Road where the capacity was restricted to just 22,000. The association, he said, would look at any city with suitable venues and a significant Irish population, which leaves it with a list of obvious candidates that includes Glasgow, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham to choose from.

He said financial considerations were a significant factor and that the organisation could not afford to sustain the loss in revenue that would result from the reduced capacity at Lansdowne Road, although when he attempted to outline the precise extent of those losses he was sketchy, to say the least, eventually claiming that the figure involved would run to around €200,000 per game.

More than one of his predecessors has taken the line that the association did little better than break even on the use of the bucket seats due to the high cost of hiring them and securing the necessary insurance cover.

Rooney said the FAI's leadership would watch with interest developments within the GAA over the next few months, and said any decision to make Croke Park available to other sports would be extremely welcome. He added that a proposal outlined in The Irish Times yesterday that the Government purchase the stadium and then lease it back to the GAA while making it available to other associations is "an excellent idea".

The suggestion is said to have attracted interest from senior GAA figures, although it is not yet the basis for any firm proposals.

In the meantime, the FAI continue to await some movement at Government level on the stadium issue. Rooney said he had raised the matter on several occasions with the Taoiseach and that he expected the Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue, to bring the matter before the Cabinet again in January. But the sense of optimism that for so long characterised the remarks of various FAI officials in relation to the issue was noticeably absent yesterday.

The association, meanwhile, hope to confirm over the next couple of weeks their programme of senior friendly internationals for the first half of next year, with the schedule of World Cup qualifiers then being decided in January at a meeting involving the associations drawn with Ireland this afternoon.

The Irish are second seeds in the draw and will end up in a group of either six or seven nations. The eight group winners and the two best runners-up progress to the finals, while six other second-placed sides go into play-offs for three further places.

FIFA's calendar of international match dates for the next four years provides for 14 competitive and four friendly matches between next August and November 2005. With the August 2004 date pencilled in for a friendly, it is anticipated the European qualifiers will get under way in September. With the November 2005 dates set aside for the play-offs, there is precisely the required number of competitive slots (all of them double dates) for teams in even the larger, seven-team groups to get through their programme of matches.

It is anticipated, however, that some qualifying matches might be played on dates allocated for friendly games if there are problems between associations agreeing a schedule, and Rooney said the FAI were not ruling out playing a competitive match against one of Ireland's less formidable group opponents before the summer.