Macedonia resist moves to postpone

Macedonia will resist any attempt to re-arrange next Saturday's European Championship Group Eight qualifying game against the Republic of Ireland in Skopje, despite the fact that the city is now on a war footing.

Speaking ahead of today's UEFA meeting which will determine if the fixture goes ahead as scheduled, an official of the Macedonian Football Federation said yesterday that it was now too late to make alternative arrangements.

"All our preparations have been made, the tickets have been sold and we cannot disappoint the people here," he said.

"We have informed UEFA of the position and told them there is no reason to stop the game. We think they should listen to us because we know the situation in Skopje."

Queried on reports that accommodation in the hotel reserved for the Irish squad and some 120 spectators had been taken up by NATO personnel, preparing for possible intervention in the Kosovo crisis, he said: "There are difficulties about hotel rooms, but we have assured UEFA and the Irish federation that these will be cleared up before Thursday. There are hotel reservations for the Irish team and they will be honoured."

Whether this pledge impacts on members of the Euro 2000 championship committee, whose opinions will be canvassed by telephone this morning, remains to be seen. At UEFA headquarters in Zurich yesterday, there was at last, it seemed, a growing realisation of the urgency of the problem.

In spite of the gathering storm clouds in the region, officials were still shrinking from a definitive statement but with every passing hour the prospect of intervention is becoming more likely.

Speaking about the Skopje fixture and Yugoslavia's scheduled meeting with Croatia at Belgrade on Saturday, a spokesman said they were now in the process of collating all the evidence coming from the two cities.

"I am not in a position to speculate on what the committee will do, but their decision will be based on what is good for football," he said.

The three options on the table are:

(a) to postpone the fixture.

(b) to switch it to a neutral venue on Saturday.

(c) to proceed as scheduled with the game.

The second is the preferred choice of the FAI, on the basis that they are well prepared with a near full-strength team.

There is no guarantee of key players like Roy Keane, Denis Irwin and Mark Kinsella being available on April 24th or 25th, the probable date if a postponement is necessary.

Apart from Macedonia's objections, the main argument against a switch of venue on Saturday is that many national federations may be unwilling or unable to host the match.

The other pertinent item on today's UEFA agenda is Croatia's demand to have their game against Yugoslavia postponed. A highly-charged fixture given the troubled history between the two countries, the Yugoslav football federation has limited the number of Croatian fans in the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade to just 150 on Saturday.

Yugoslavia are also scheduled to play Macedonia in Belgrade a week tomorrow and if UEFA find it impractical to go ahead with both games, the Croats are almost certain to call for Yugoslavia's removal from the championship.

That's a prospect which appeals to the FAI in what has come to be know as the Group of Hell. And having expelled the Yugoslavs from the 1992 finals in Sweden because of internal strife in the Balkans, UEFA could be tempted to take pre-emptive action if the current situation ignites any further.

The other big factor in today's discussions is the probability of insurance cover becoming void in the event of Skopje being declared a war zone. Apart from the cover for the players, which runs into multiples of millions of pounds, there are other insurance issues involved for the people travelling with them.

When the game against Yugoslavia in Belgrade was postponed in similar circumstances last October, all monies for advance bookings were refunded after Hibernian Insurance agreed to waive the war zone clause.

However, a spokesman for Ray Treacy Travel, the FAI's official tour operator, warned yesterday that there is no guarantee that the insurers will necessarily adopt the same course of action if Saturday's game is postponed.