Derry want to stage tie at Brandywell

Uefa Cup: Derry City hope to make a final decision over the weekend regarding the venue of the home leg of their Uefa Cup tie against French giants Paris Saint Germain, but both the club's chairman, Jim Roddy, and manager, Stephen Kenny, said yesterday their preference is to stage the game at the Brandywell.

The club is scheduled to host the French cup holders on September 14th and will have to receive clearance from Uefa to play the game at their own ground which has only 3,000 seats. Roddy, though, is confident the Brandywell will be approved and believes moving it to another venue could prove counter-productive given the club's strong links with the city's population. "We believe as a club we
are more or less obliged to play it there," he said yesterday. "I mean, obviously we're proud to represent Ireland in Europe but first and foremost we are representing the city of Derry and to bring a club like Paris there would be a great occasion.

"It would be a different matter if we were told we had to move it but I don't think that that will happen. I think we can get around whatever problems they might have with the ground. The lights, we feel, are more or less up to the standard while the main problem with the seating is just there's so little of it . . . we could sell the ground out many times over for a game like this."

That is precisely why the prospect of a move has been so widely talked about but Roddy more or less ruled Belfast's Windsor Park out as a possible venue yesterday and said in the event the game has to be switched to a larger ground then Dublin would be, "the most likely destination". In the event of that happening the possibilities would be to stage the game at Lansdowne Road, Dalymount or Tolka Park. The high cost of hiring the southside venue is likely to deter the club from going there.

The Dubliner hopes to travel to France next week in order to see his side's prospective opponents in action but readily concedes on the basis of the players at the club that City face a
particularly stiff challenge.

"They have the likes of Pauletta, Paulo Cesar, (Michael) Landreau and (Vikosh) Dhorasoo so they're clearly a good side," he said. "And I was very impressed with (Jerome) Rothen
when he played for Monaco in the Champions League a couple of seasons back so it will be a tough game for us but we'll look at what they have over the next couple of weeks and
adapt to it."

Pauletta was, in fact, the French league's top scorer last season with 21 goals and scored the only goal of the game last weekend as Guy Lacombe's side beat Lille in front of 35,000 spectators
at the Parc des Princes.

"I'm happy enough at least that we're at home first because we won't be overawed by playing anyone at the Brandywell and once you've played a team like this once it becomes that
little bit easier to go out and take them on again."

While City will lose out on substantial gate revenues because of their limited capacity at their home, they can expect to profit from the sale of television rights to the game which were being negotiated on their behalf by a third party in Monaco. Once again Roddy expected a deal would be finalised with a French broadcaster over the weekend. French TV stations are not amongst Europe's top tier when it
comes to paying for European club games and Derry's negotiation position is not helped by the fact Auxerre, Nancy, Marseille and Lens will all also play Uefa Cup games the same night. The club should still reap a low sixfigure sum for the rights for the game.

Drogheda United's defeat by IK Start on penalties (10-11) cost them a potentially lucrative tie
against Dutch giants Ajax. Uefa Cup holders Seville will start the defence of their title against Greek
side Atromitos, who will be making their European debut this season.

The British sides enjoyed mixed fortunes in yesterday's draw with Newcastle United and Rangers drawing what look to be beatable opponents in Levadia Tallinn and Molde FK respectively
while Hearts and Tottenham must go to Prague next month with the Scots taking on Sparta and the Londoners Slavia. In the remaining ties involving premiership outfits, Blackburn
Rovers face FC Salzburg while West Ham face a clash with Serie A side Palermo.