FAI to meet recruitment panel in London today

SOCCER/Ireland team manager:The FAI last night confirmed that board members will today meet the recruitment panel established to help hire the new manager of the Irish football team.

The meeting is expected to take place in London where the FAI's John Delaney, Eddie Murray, David Blood and Michael Cody will outline the job specification of the new man as well as the salary package on offer.

It is not entirely clear in the wake of Andy Townsend's withdrawal whether there is now a third member of the recruitment panel as it had been envisaged there would be. Under-21 international manager Don Givens, however, does now appear to be a part of the process and Don Howe is also expected to attend the meeting.

The fact that the pair are to play such a central role in hiring the new man appears to further bolster Terry Venables' prospects of landing the job. Both have known the former England, Tottenham and Barcelona coach for a long time. Howe worked alongside him in the England set-up more than a decade ago while Givens was a team-mate of his at QPR back in the early 1970s.

The FAI has been at pains to stress in recent days that the panel will be free to talk to other candidates as they see fit. A number of people including Roy Hodgson, Gerard Houllier and Arie Haan have expressed an interest but Venables has been regarded as the clear front-runner for some time now.

Although Delaney has repeatedly stressed that the association's aim is to have the new man in place in time for the friendly against Brazil in early February, it is anticipated that after this afternoon's meeting is out of the way, the panel members could meet with the Londoner within a matter of days and, theoretically at least, an appointment could quite easily be made before Christmas.