Ireland hoping to avoid familiar faces

Belgium and England may be the preferred opposition for the Republic of Ireland among the top two flights of countries when the draw for the qualifying phase of the 2002 World Cup takes place in Tokyo this morning.

Having eliminated Ireland in a play-off for a place in the World Cup finals in France last year, Belgium are scarcely among the favourite countries of the Irish management team.

Yet, notwithstanding signs of frailty, which have manifested themselves of late in the teams of the Czech Republic and Romania, the Belgians are generally viewed as the most vulnerable of the nine top-seeded nations.

Despite the perception that Scotland are weaker than England, Mick McCarthy believes that his players would respond better to the challenge of bringing down Kevin Keegan's team.

"I believe it's a draw which would put a smile on a lot of Irish faces," he said. "That's not to infer that England are a soft touch just now.

"People who write them off as no-hopers in the European finals next summer do so at their peril. Keegan has the nucleus of a strong team with good players in key areas. And if they win their first game in the European finals, there's no telling how far they can go.

"But there is nothing to fire up an Ireland side like the prospect of giving England the old heaveho. It certainly worked for us in the past and despite the quality of defenders like Sol Campbell, Martin Keown and Tony Adams, it could do so again."

McCarthy, who planned to travel to Tokyo on Sunday, pulled out of the trip at the eleventh hour for personal reasons, leaving the FAI president Pat Quigley and chief executive Bernard O'Byrne to look after Irish interests at the draw which is to be screened live by Sky Television, beginning at 10.0 a.m.

Before doing so however, he made it clear, in suitably graphic terms, that he doesn't wish to revisit some of the places strewn with broken Irish dreams of qualifying for the Euro 2000 finals.

"I don't want us to come out with war-torn countries, countries ravaged by earthquakes or countries which can only be reached by marathon plane, train, boat and automobile journeys.

"And I certainly don't wish to go back to Macedonia. I think we've experienced enough disappointment in that country not to want to return there for some time."

The possibility is that McCarthy's worst fears could be realised. Yugoslavia are among the top-seeded nations, Turkey are ranked in the second group and, if you add in Macedonia as the fourth-seeded nation, the Irish could find themselves in what they would term a group of hell.

The converse of that situation, however, is that many managers will see Ireland, Croatia and Poland as the teams to be avoided in the third flight. Among them is England's Kevin Keegan who reckons that they were one of the unlucky teams in the preliminaries of Euro 2000.

Meanwhile, FIFA have signalled the end of terrestrial television's stranglehold on World Cup matches, saying the bulk of the action will be broadcast through satellite, cable and pay-per-view.

FIFA explained that, under their own rules and the domestic Broadcasting Act, BBC or ITV will still be able to televise live the opening match in South Korea, the semi-finals and the final in Japan. FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said: "Sky could have every World Cup match except ones precluded by domestic agreement."

FIFA sold the rights to 2002 for £750 million to German middlemen, Prisma Kirsch, who are seeking to maximise profits.