Republic of Ireland friendly internationals: The FAI yesterday mapped out much of what will occupy Brian Kerr and his senior Republic of Ireland team between now and the first of their World Cup qualifiers.
Chief executive Fran Rooney confirmed a third home friendly international, against Romania, and suggested trips to Poland and the United States still look to be very much on the cards for the months ahead.
The 11th-hour deal with the Romanians - who will visit Lansdowne Road on May 27th - means that tickets to the forthcoming game with Brazil will now be sold as part of a three-match package.
Unveiling the association's plans for the games yesterday, Rooney took obvious pride in the fact that prices for games would, despite the substantial fee being paid to the Brazilians for coming to Dublin, remain close to what is regularly charged for admission to friendly games with only the terrace tickets being raised by €5 to €20 each or €60 for the 8,000 adult mini-season tickets that will be made available to the public.
In addition to keeping all but one of their ticket prices at normal levels, there is an increase in the number of children's tickets available, with 5,000 due to be sold for each match.
Around 3,000 of these are accounted for by the block booking system and so a total of 10,000 tickets - most of them for the terraces, including 2,000 aimed at children, and priced at just €15 for the three matches - will go on sale on February 5th.
The downside is that the increased number of children's tickets means the capacity will be reduced by 4,000 to roughly 44,000 while all of the 10,000 for general sale will be distributed through Ticketmaster, which inevitably means handling fees and service charges.
The package, however, still looks attractive given the status of the first opponents and the highly respectable quality of the Czechs and Romanians. Assuming the three matches sell out, the FAI stands to make a profit of around €750,000.
"We've put a package together to provide exceptional value for supporters and pack the stadium," said Rooney at the press conference yesterday where details of the games were announced. "We've been looking at ways of marketing our game in a more attractive way and this package is indicative of the type of value we can offer our supporters.
"For far less than the cost of one major concert in Dublin, fans can get to see world-class opponents and provide Brian's team with the support they deserve."
Romania should certainly bring additional quality to an already impressive line-up of games. Though they narrowly missed out on a place in the European Championship qualification play-offs recently after finishing third to Norway in Group Two on the basis of the results between the two sides, they were comfortably the group's leading scorers and turned in several strong performances over the course of the campaign.
An improving side, Inter Milan defender Cristian Chivu and Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu are among the best known of their current generation of players.
The FAI hopes to arrange an under-21 game on the day before the May senior international and a number of associations have been approached, but at this stage the only thing that is certain is if the game goes ahead it won't be against the Romanians.
The seniors, meanwhile, are virtually certain to fill April's international date with a trip to Poland. The two associations have reached broad agreement on the fixture and the Poles have already announced it will happen (on the 28th, with the venue still to be confirmed), but Rooney said yesterday there are still some details to be worked out and confirmation of the game is still a few days off.
Similarly, he said, work is continuing on finalising the proposed three-match trip to the US where Scotland are among the prospective opponents. "It's still likely to go ahead," said Rooney yesterday.
"We're looking at three games with the first on the 31st of May, the second on June 3rd or 4th and the last on the 6th or 7th, but it's not quite sorted out.
"At this stage, it's probably that tournament or nothing in terms of the close season but we're still hopeful that it's going to happen."
Beyond the summer, Rooney confirmed the Croats have expressed an interest in coming to Dublin in August, but a decision on whether to proceed with that game is unlikely to be made until after the fixtures for the forthcoming World Cup campaign are finalised on February 3rd.
"We'll look to play the sort of team that suits us best at the time," said Rooney.
THREE-MATCH PACKAGE
Feb 18th: ... Brazil (H)
March 31st: ... Czech Republic (H)
May 27th: ... Romania (H)
FIXTURES TO BE CONFIRMED
April 28th: ... Poland (A)
May 31st, June 3rd or 4th and June 6th or 7th: ... USA Tournament
Aug 18th: ... Croatia (H)
PRICING (for three games)
Terrace tickets adult: ... €60
Child terrace ticket: ... €15
Adult stand ticket (if available): ... €75/120
AVAILABILITY
Terraces: 10,000 tickets (per match) for sale to the public
Stands: limited number of tickets may become available
Outlets: Tickets on sale through Ticketmaster outlets on Thursday, February 5th at 9 a.m.
(Ticketmaster phoneline 0818719300; Ticketmaster Northern Ireland 08702434455; www.ticketmaster.ie)
Capacity: 44,000. This includes 5,000 children's tickets (under-16)
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