Ireland fixtures to be decided by lottery

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING:THE SCHEDULE for the Republic of Ireland's European Championship qualifying campaign will now be sorted out next week in Tel Aviv where officials of game's European governing body will draw lots to resolve the matter after representatives of the six nations – the Republic of Ireland, Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra – failed to reach agreement on a programme of games in Moscow yesterday.

With little common ground having been established between the various associations beforehand, both the FAI’s chief executive, John Delaney, and Irish team manager, Giovanni Trapattoni had expressed fears prior to the meeting that it would prove unproductive.

In the end, it didn’t take long for their suspicions to be confirmed with intransigence on the part of the Armenians apparently scuppering any hopes of concluding a deal.

The leading three seeds in Group B – Russia, Slovakia and Ireland – had sorted out the dates on which they would face each other and Delaney paid particular tribute afterwards to the Slovaks for their willingness to compromise.

The Irish had also given a fair bit away to ensure that their more awkward away dates were wrapped up in two double headers, with Delaney having agreed to play Slovakia on a friendly date in November, which suited neither country, and facing the prospect of the team having to face into all of its away games over the course of 2011.

Ultimately, though, the final hurdles proved insurmountable. The FAI couldn’t agree a date for the last of its games, the home encounter with Armenia, whose officials are also reckoned to have dug their heels in on other fronts.

The failure to sort things out in Moscow now means that the whole fixture list will be decided by lottery next week in Tel Aviv where Uefa is meeting for two days prior to its annual congress.

The matter of Euro 2012 fixtures – the group that includes England and Wales will also have to be drawn – is most likely to be dealt with on either Wednesday or Thursday, according to a spokesman for Uefa yesterday.

“We’re disappointed but it was almost expected as I said last week,” said Delaney after yesterday’s meeting. “Normally, there are some talks beforehand which are productive but not really this time so I always feared that it would be a hard one.

“What is strange is that the top three seeds, ourselves, Russia and Slovakia, had all agreed when to play each other and, normally, when that happens things fall into place. But there was one country, I don’t want to say who, who was vetoing everything. It’s easy to say no all the time but sometimes you have to say yes. It was frustrating. I think you need the experience of being at these meetings.

“We had agreed nine out of 10 fixtures,” he confirmed. “We had compromised a lot on them. We had agreed to play Slovakia at home on the November friendly date which was not ideal for either of us as we could only get our players 48 hours before the game. It was a big step by Slovakia as they agreed to come to Dublin on that date.

“We had also agreed to play Russia and Armenia away on the same trip and Macedonia and Slovakia away at the same time. It’s the luck of the draw now, there is no way of saying to Uefa, listen, we’d agreed a few games and can we keep them.

“The draw with Uefa is an open draw, they do take climate into account but that won’t affect us in this case. Travel is not an issue, we could get double headers or not, either way, it’s in the lap of the gods. It’s not a big issue for Giovanni or ourselves. We’ll get the logistics right once we know when we’re playing.”

Trapattoni had actually given out mixed messages prior to yesterday’s meeting, suggesting at one point that he was keen to kick off with two away matches but subsequently claiming he was rather indifferent to whatever schedule came his way. In the end, Delaney said yesterday, the Italian was not overly surprised or upset by the failure to reach an agreement.

“I spoke to Giovanni and he didn’t expect it to be any different. He felt it was going to end up with Uefa anyway so his attitude is, ‘let Uefa get on with it’. He wasn’t that concerned when we play anyone.

Delaney also said that Andorra have indicated a preference for staging their home game against Ireland within the tiny state rather than in nearby Barcelona as they did when the Irish last visited back in 2004.