Ireland face a mammoth task

SOCCER:The Republic of Ireland face the daunting task of taking on reigning world champions Italy in their campaign for a place in South Africa in 2010. For the FAI the draw means another big pay day with John Delaney confirming last night that tickets for the campaign's home matches will be sold in packages so as to maximise revenue. For Ireland's next manager it looks a difficult couple of years ahead with tricky opponents even amongst the lower-ranked sides.

Aside from the Azzurri, Ireland will come up against Bulgaria for the first time competitively since pinching a place at Euro '88 from under their noses and face Cyprus for the fourth time in five qualifying tournaments. The Republic's group is completed by Georgia and international newcomers Montenegro.

The fixture list for the campaign will be hammered out at a meeting between representatives of the six associations during the third week in January. The top seeds generally have first refusal on hosting the meeting which is seen as conferring a slight advantage in the negotiations, but Bulgaria made a strong play to stage the event yesterday and FAI officials will return home unsure as to which of two countries they will be travelling to first in the new year.

Delaney gave the draw a cautious welcome, observing that it "could have been worse". With just one side progressing automatically, though, and eight of the nine runners-up playing off for four more spots at the finals, qualification looks to be an uphill task.

Aside from being world champions, Italy are also currently Europe's top-ranked team. They will start the campaign as odds-on favourites to top the group and take its one automatic qualifying place.

Bulgaria narrowly missed out on qualification for next summer's European Championships finishing third to Romania and the Netherlands and, while they were not the best of the second-seeded sides, they will be tough opponents for the Irish.

In the lower end of the group, meanwhile, all of the teams drawn in Group 8 look tricky from an Irish point of view. Assuming the Republic players are better organised under their new manager then they will hope to gain revenge for - or at least avoid repeats of - humiliations in Nicosia and Dublin by the Cypriots in the campaign just ended.

The Cypriots, though, will not be unhappy to have drawn Ireland again and after a campaign in which Angelos Anastasiadis's side also took points from Germany and Wales, they will be aiming to continue their improvement next time around.

Georgia played Italy in the European Championship qualifiers, losing by two goals both home and away but they dealt Scottish hopes of qualification a huge blow by beating Alex McLeish's side 2-0 in Tbilisi where they also held a strong Ukrainian side to a 1-1 draw.

The group's sixth-ranked side, meanwhile, was the toughest of the bottom seeds with Montenegro languishing four places from the bottom of the European ranking list only because they have just started playing international football as an independent state. The side contains a number of players who previously represented Serbia and Montenegro at different levels and a couple who play club football at a high level.

From the association's point of view the prospect of taking on Italy will, of course, go a long way towards compensating for the downsides of the draw.

The association made around €10 million in television, advertising and ticket revenues from the visit of Germany last month and would expect to at least match that when Roberto Donadoni's men come to town.

There will be a desire to avoid having the Dublin game early in the campaign and Delaney more or less confirmed that tickets for what could be the first competitive meeting between the two nations since Ray Houghton's goal earned the Republic a famous win at the Giants Stadium in 1994 will be tied into packages that include less attractive fixtures. "The block booking system has worked well for us in the past," said the association's chief executive when asked how the organisation might hope to fill Croke Park for the visits of less admired sides, "and the supporters have been pretty loyal to us."

The line-up in the group has, he said "given us the ability to challenge to qualify. But it's a tough group. Italy are world champions and topped their Euro 2008 qualifying group while Bulgaria have improved a lot in recent years and just missed out on qualification for Euro 2008 by one point to Holland. Still, I am sure the new manager will relish the challenge of taking on the world champions home and away."

He went on to express the hope that Staunton's successor will be appointed before February's friendly against Brazil although there is a growing expectation that Terry Venables could be approached long before then. The former Tottenham and England manager has privately signalled his interest in the job.

England have been handed a chance to gain swift revenge over Croatia for their elimination last week from the European Championships. The two countries were drawn in Group 6 along with Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and, once again, Andorra.

Northern Ireland were drawn in a group that contains three of the sides - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and San Marino - that the Republic played last time around while Wales must face Germany again as well as Russia and Finland. The Scots did not fare too badly, getting the Netherlands, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland in a five-team group.