Meeting gives FAI renewed hope

Lansdowne Road Redevelopment: After a meeting yesterday with the Minister for Arts, Sport, and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, there is again hope within the FAI that the government may decide early in the new year to provide the financial support required to build a new stadium in Dublin, writes Emmet Malone.

O'Donoghue heard yesterday from the FAI's Fran Rooney and John Delaney, as well as the IRFU's Philip Browne and Noel Murphy, that the two organisations are in a position to put up roughly one third of the €250 million cost of building the new 50,000 capacity stadium at Lansdowne Road proposed by the rugby union last week.

That would leave around €160 million to come from the government, although the leaders of the two sports organisations, as they had done previously when pushing their more ambitious development plans, emphasised that much of the total expenditure would find its way back to the state in VAT, income tax and PRSI.

They estimate that the total figure involved is some €85 million and that the cost to the government of funding the long promised development would therefore effectively come to less than €90 million at today's prices.

It has been expected for some time that O'Donoghue will make a recommendation to the cabinet some time in January as to how the government should proceed on the issue and both organisations made it clear that the complete lack of any clarity on the issue at present is severely affecting their ability to plan for the future on a wide range of issues.

The FAI also made the point that it is anxious to be in a position to inform FIFA of some progress on the issue of its home ground before representatives of the five other nations drawn with Ireland for the qualifying stages of the next World Cup arrive in Dublin to sort out their fixtures programme on February 3rd.

The stadium being proposed would not be scheduled for completion until 2008 but the association continues to insist that it will not be allowed to use temporary seating in Lansdowne Road during the forthcoming qualification campaign unless that world body can be persuaded that there is firm progress towards a more satisfactory long term arrangement.

If the necessary assurances cannot be provided, Rooney and Delaney told O'Donoghue yesterday, the association will start looking at possible alternatives outside of the state early in the new year.

Ireland, meanwhile, has moved up one place to 14 in FIFA's world ranking list following last month's win over Canada. Brazil remains the world's top-ranked team with the Republic's World Cup 2006 qualification rivals, France, in second place.

Having weighed up the options since our exit from Euro 2004, the FAI is now expected to confirm next week that the Irish senior team will take part in a international tournament in the United States at the end of May.

Scotland and probably Mexico will also take part in the three-team tournament with the Irish taking on the Scots in Boston and playing their other game, which could yet end up being against Poland, in New York.

The likelihood is that the Republic will play a third game on the trip with the United States or Canada looking to be the most likely opponents in what would be a game at an as yet undecided venue.

The Scots confirmed last week that they would travel to the US a couple of days before the English FA Cup final and their chief executive David Taylor revealed then that a game against the Irish was very much on the cards.

"The obvious teams we would face," he said, "would be the USA, Canada or Mexico but we're talking to the Irish.

"That match in Boston would be something else."

The required agreement now appears to have been reached and the FAI are hoping to put the final touches to their schedule before announcing at some point over the coming days that Brian Kerr and his men will depart within a couple of days of the FA Cup final having been played.