Soccer/Euro 2004: While most of Merrion Square faced the threat of rain through most of yesterday it was, as ever, pouring down on number 80, where FAI officials were getting to grips with the real extent of the losses they will have to endure as a result of the Irish senior team's failure to qualify for Euro 2004.

The day after Brian Kerr's side went down to Switzerland in Basel the association's chief executive Fran Rooney estimated that the cost to the organisation of missing out would be between two and three million euro.

Yesterday the figure was revised upwards by more or less the same figure again by an FAI spokesman after UEFA announced huge increases in the amount of prize money that will be paid to participating associations at the championships.

A total of €128 million will be carved up between the 16 competing nations with each guaranteed to receive €4.8 million for qualifying, after which a group win will add €640,000 to the total and qualification for the quarter-finals will bring in a further €1.9 million.

In total, the tournament winners can expect to carry off in excess of €18 million, almost twice the amount the French federation picked up after its team beat Italy in the Euro 2000 final. Overall the prize money on offer is up 66 per cent on three years ago with the average payout this time amounting to €8 million.

"The increases are certainly very substantial," said an FAI representative yesterday, "and even allowing for the additional bonuses and other expenses that would have had to have been paid out it seems likely that the real cost to the association of not qualifying is now close to €6 million rather than €3 million."

The additional €3 million is equivalent to the increase in Government funding that the association is aiming to secure in order to meet its growing commitments for next year.

With the levels of grants to most sports bodies currently being reduced, however, it remains far from clear how well the FAI will fare in its search for additional public funds and Rooney has made it clear that the organisation must urgently seek to maximise revenues from other sources.

One piece of good news to come from the UEFA Executive Committee meeting that decided on the prize money for next summer's tournament was the announcement that a further €256 of the €800 expected to be generated by Euro 2004 will be set aside to be distributed amongst the European body's 52 member national associations.

This figure too is substantially up and the money will be paid out under a variety of grant programmes during the next four years.

Kerr, meanwhile, will this afternoon in Dublin announce his squad for the forthcoming friendly against Canada.

It is expected that he will seek to give a number of younger players an opportunity to come into the squad with the likes of Liam Miller and Andy Reid likely to receive call-ups although his employers will be keen to see a strong representation of the better-known stars too as they attempt to shift tickets for a game that will scarcely sell on the basis of the opposition's quality.

Miller underlined his claim to have come of age with another goal for Celtic in the midweek Champions League win over Anderlecht while Reid's impressive form of late for Nottingham Forest was recognised yesterday when the young winger was named as the English First Division Player of the Month for October.

Kerr's scope for experimentation has been limited slightly by injuries to Sunderland midfielders Thomas Butler and Seán Thornton. Butler is reported to require a knee operation that is likely to keep him out until the new year while Thornton damaged ankle ligaments a couple of weeks ago and is concentrating his efforts on being fit enough to travel with the Irish under-20s to the United Arab Emirates for the Youth World Cup.

Former youth international John O'Shea, meanwhile, has said that he feels Ireland might well have qualified for next summer's European Championships if Roy Keane had still been playing in the team.

"I know what an influence he has on the Manchester United team, so I know what an influence he could have had on the Republic of Ireland team," O'Shea said yesterday. "We had a poor start, got it back together but it was just a bit too much. Maybe if we had a Keano it could have been different. We needed to win at home against Russia and we still had a chance in Switzerland. I would like to have seen how he would have driven the team."

Earlier in the week Kerr, in an interview with the Irish News, again lamented the fact that the in-form Keane had chosen not to return to international football this year while Alex Ferguson hailed the Corkman as the best midfielder to play at United during his 17 years as manager of the club.