Mick McCarthy is to be offered an extension of his contract which would keep him in charge of the national team until 2002. His current two-year arrangement ends next February.

A meeting of the FAI's board of management yesterday mandated Pat Quigley, Brendan Menton and Bernard O'Byrne to meet with McCarthy to discuss a new deal.

Preliminary talks are expected to take place next week and it is hoped that the manager will put his name to an extension of his contract before the squad travels to Skopje for the European Championship meeting with Macedonia on October 10th.

McCarthy has been in charge of the national senior squad since February 1996. "There has been widespread speculation about the manager in recent months and it has now been decided to start negotiations on a new contract, sooner rather than later," said an FAI official.

McCarthy, who plans to watch two members of his squad, Alan McLoughlin and Matt Holland on opposite sides in today's English First Division meeting of Portsmouth and Ipswich, said he was pleased with the development.

"It seems to suggest that at least some people are happy with the way I'm going about the job and that, of course, is very reassuring to know," he said.