SOCCER EURO 2012 DRAW: NORMALLY, THEY would be viewed as being inextricably linked, but somewhere along the line at Warsaw's Palace of Culture yesterday, the Republic of Ireland team's fate and the FAI's fortunes became separated with the Boys in Green doing better in the draw for the qualifying stages of Euro 2012 than the association's blazers.

In footballing terms, it is a decidedly positive outcome for Giovanni Trapattoni, who confirmed yesterday that he had turned down the job at Juventus, and his men with Ireland’s group including just one side that had qualified for this summer’s World Cup, Slovakia, and, in Russia, the lowest ranked of any of the top-seeded sides.

At least on paper, meanwhile, none of the sides ranked below Ireland looks capable of presenting too many difficulties. As long as the FAI’s representatives at the fixtures meeting, provisionally scheduled for the 20th of this month in Bratislava, succeed in avoiding the team having to make trips to Federal Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Armenia when Skopje and Yerevan, respectively, are at their warmest.

Similar conditions have given decent opponents some problems in the past.

The group is completed by Andorra, traditionally one of the tamest of Europe’s minnows with the tiny tax-free ski resort having completed the last two competitive campaigns without securing a single point.

Reflecting on what was undoubtedly a relatively kind draw, Trapattoni was cautiously optimistic afterwards, insisting: “It’s never easy when you see the group before the games and two of the teams we must play are hard – Russia and Slovakia are tough.

“We have shown in the past that we can play against every team – like Italy and France. But I think England, Germany, Spain – these countries with the really famous players, against them the away games are very difficult so I had been a little bit concerned about that. This? It’s not bad. It’s possible to achieve the qualification.”

Asked about the prospect of playing on an artificial surface in Russia, he said that having coached a team in Austria that played on one every week, the issue was not important as far as he was concerned as long as his players get three days to get used to the pitch beforehand.

Russia’s coach Guus Hiddink, meanwhile, acknowledged his side will start the campaign as favourites to top the group but that they can take nothing for granted after what happened to them in the World Cup play-offs.

“You must be confident of winning when you start,” he said.

“The fact that Russia has improved its status in recent years and as a consequence are in Pot One, it means that everyone can consider them as favourites, but there’s nothing more than that to say because you can’t ignore the fact that most recently we have failed to qualify.

“You can say it was only one goal but we did not qualify for the World Cup and so you cannot say that automatically you are the favourites and so you can lie back.”

As for Ireland, he observed; “We have seen them recently playing in Paris and before so they are very competitive, very competitive. I don’t know exactly all of the squad individually at this moment but we will have our information sorted in plenty of time.”

Hiddink, of course, may not be in charge of the Russians when the campaign gets under way. He is under contract only until July and is due to meet again soon with the Russian football federation regarding his future.

The team’s failure to make it to South Africa has tarnished his status somewhat, but if he does not agree a new deal then his previous successes means he will still be highly marketable.

Unfortunately for the FAI, the same cannot really be said for the Russian team as a whole. As top seeds go, they will not bring the broadcast revenues, additional commercial revenues or premium ticket-selling potential that an England, Germany or Spain would have.

A disappointed-looking John Delaney admitted afterwards that in TV money terms they would be “poor” but insisted that qualification, if achieved, would make up for any shortfall.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said.

“From our perspective, it’s about qualifying – we’ve invested in a top manager who has done very well for us to date and we’re building momentum now towards the qualifiers.

“That’s a group we can qualify from. You make money if you qualify.”