UEFA's hand forced by Andrews statement

It was a phone call from David Andrews, Minister for Foreign Affairs, which prevented the saga of Ireland's on-off fixture in Skopje on Saturday descending into pure farce.

With UEFA threatening to defer a decision on the game until an hour before the Irish squad was due to leave Dublin this morning, Andrews took time off from attending the European summit in Berlin to instruct Department officials to issue a statement advising Irish nationals against travelling to Macedonia in the current situation.

Within an hour of that warning, Aer Lingus had cancelled the flight bringing the Irish party to Skopje and Guido Tognoni, head of the championship committee, conceded that there was indeed no way that the game could go ahead.

Earlier Ray Treacy, chairman of Ray Treacy Travel, the FAI's official tour operators, who had left on Tuesday evening to make advance preparations for the Irish team's arrival in Macedonia, was forced to terminate his trip in Zurich.

There he discovered that all flights to Skopje, Belgrade, Sarejevo and Tirana had been cancelled with the exception of a Macedonian Airline charter returning to base.

"It was at that point I realised that whatever UEFA said, there was no way the game could go ahead," he said. "Frankly, I was happy about that. Monies for all advance bookings will be returned, the game can be played at a later date and, most important of all, everybody is safe."

In spite of the threat of air strikes in the region, there had been only one cancellation among the 167 passengers booked for the trip. And when this was confirmed on Tuesday, Treacy said that he had two team supporters anxious to fill it.

Predictably, the reaction in Macedonia to the postponement was one of deep disappointment.

"We kept telling people that Skopje is calm and there is no threat to anybody in the city," said a spokesman for the Macedonian Football Federation. "UEFA accepted that at first, but then informed us yesterday that the Irish players could not travel.

"We understood why they were worried by the news on television, but you must understand also that the people in Macedonia are disappointed that there is no game."

It later emerged that the Macedonians had made plans to act on their pledge to provide accommodation for their hosts. An Irish army officer confirmed that NATO personnel had been instructed to vacate Skopje's Inter Continental Hotel, where the Irish players were due to be based from noon today.

Mick McCarthy described the decision to call off the game as a "defeat for football, but correct in the circumstances. In spite of the distractions, we were all primed for a big performance and it's a pity to discover now that it's all been so much wasted effort.

"Some of the players I spoke with were not particularly happy with having to travel there, but with three important points to be won, they were ready to go and do the business.

"Just as was the case for the postponed game in Belgrade last October, we were as near to full strength as made no difference. Hopefully we'll be in the same position when we eventually get to go to Skopje in October."

Some of the Ireland players went back to their clubs within hours of the official announcement. For others like team captain Roy Keane, the journey never even began.

He was still in Manchester yesterday morning when McCarthy advised him to stay put and await developments. Tony Cascarino was at Luxembourg's international airport when word came through that the game was off and he returned to his home in France, sadder but wiser.

For Lee Carsley, newly transferred to Blackburn, the postponement was a blessing in disguise. Because of a hamstring problem, he had been forced to pull out of the squad on Tuesday.