Kerr's eye on U-20 draw

The draw for the final stages of this year's Under-20 World Cup will take place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, this evening when the 24 competing teams will be divided into six groups and allocated to the nine venues around the country.

There will be no seeding for the championships, but the teams will be divided into four groups of six for the draw. The European sides will be drawn in one go and will not, therefore, be able to meet in the initial group stages.

The other six team groups will be made up of the five African countries plus Australia, the South Americans, two Concacaf qualifiers and the Asians plus the other two Concacaf qualifiers.

The upshot is that Brian Kerr's side could, on the one hand, be drawn against Mali, Costa Rica and Honduras, or, on the other, against Argentina, Nigeria and Mexico.

"There's few in there that you wouldn't mind avoiding in the early stages all right," said Kerr yesterday, "and most of the team's will have an advantage over us to start with because of the heat."

The Irish boss insists that he is not too worried about who his team are drawn against or which of the venues they end up being based in. Kerr is still frustrated with some of the English clubs whose players he intends calling into his final squad of 18 for the championships.

Leeds continue to insist that they will not release their players for the tournament on the basis that they are not happy that their safety and welfare can be sufficiently guaranteed. In contrast to Everton, however, United have apparently allowed players expected to be called up by England or Ireland to have the initial inoculations required in order to make the trip.

If Everton continue to prevent Dean Delaney and Richard Dunne from having the injections beyond next week, Kerr believes the players' health would genuinely be at risk and he will be forced to cope without them.

"I wouldn't put much money on us having them at this stage, but I'm not going to give up on them either, so we'll see what happens over the next week or so."

Qualifiers: Europe: Republic of Ireland, Germany, Croatia, Portugal, Spain and England; Asia: South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan; Africa: Cameroon, Ghana, Zambia and Mali; South America: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay; Concacaf: USA, Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras; Oceania: Australia; Hosts: Nigeria.