The Uefa organising committee for next Friday's draw of the groups for the qualifying stages of the 2008 European Championships yesterday confirmed the procedure for the event in which 50 teams will be allocated to eight groups from each of which two teams will progress to the tournament finals in Austria and Switzerland a little over two years from now.
New Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton, whose team is amongst the fourth seeds for the event, will know as soon as the Republic is drawn whether it is in the one group to contain eight nations as two of the bottom seeds, which will be drawn first, will be allocated to Group A.
Staunton and his team of Bobby Robson and Kevin McDonald will, however, have to wait until close to the end of the proceedings to discover which of the big names his men will have to overcome if they are to take one of their group's two qualifying spots.
Defending champions Greece, who recently failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in Germany this summer, look to be the most attractive potential opponents amongst the top seeds, having been excluded from the normal ranking procedure, which would have resulted in them being placed amongst the second seeds, on the basis of their success in Portugal 18 months ago.
Amongst the other sides Staunton might be hoping to come up against are Romania, Bulgaria or Slovakia, who would be regarded as some of the weaker sides in their respective pots for the draw process.
If the Irish are drawn in the only group to contain eight teams it will severely restrict the room for manoeuvre enjoyed by Staunton and his employers when it comes to negotiating the fixture list at some point during the weeks after the draw.
The teams competing in Group A will have to avail of all 14 competitive dates set aside by FIFA for the completion of competitive games over the 15 months of the qualifying tournament
The situation in relation to the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road, and the availability of Croke Park, is likely to result in the Irish having to play four straight away games during June and September of next year.
Staunton is one of around 700 guests due to arrive in the Swiss town of Montreux for the draw next Thursday with 300 journalists also scheduled to attend the event.
Other international coaches expected to be present include Marco van Basten of the Netherlands, England's Sven-Goran Eriksson and France's Raymond Domenech.
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