World Cup qualifiers will be Ireland’s biggest challenge yet

THIS World Cup qualifying tournament will be the most challenging ever faced by Ireland.

The number of matches, the strength of the opposition, and the fact that fixture congestion means Ireland could have only two days to prepare for some contests.

Ireland have been placed in Pot B and so cannot be drawn against Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Slovenia or Poland.

The top seeded teams are France, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, England and Turkey. Four of those England, Italy, France and Spain will be in six-team groups.

FIFA wanted to reduce the number of qualifying matches for those four because of the heavy involvement of their club teams in UEFA competitions. Ireland's manager, Brian Kerr, has said he would prefer to be drawn in one of those six-team groups.

The only other certainty before the draw is those four teams cannot be drawn against the three who are adjudged the weakest of the 51 European bidders Andorra, Luxembourg and Kazakhstan, who will be in seven team groups.

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder of the organising committee said the number of matches involved meant teams would have to play qualifying matches on dates already set aside for 'friendly' internationals.

The complication is that clubs are obliged to release players for friendly match dates only two days before the match.Clubs are obliged to release players four days before competitive internationals but if a World Cup tie has to be played on a friendly international date then clubs need not release players until two days beforehand.

A sufficient number of dates have already been set aside for international matches over the next two years to indicate that, at worst, Ireland will have to use only one of those friendly dates for a competitive game. FIFA announced the pricing arrangement for the 2006 finals. There will be four different price categories at all matches. Tickets for the group stages will range from 35 to 100.

Tickets for the opening match will range from 65 to 300; for the quarter-finals from 55 to 180; the semi-finals from 90 to 400 and for the final from 120 to 600. Tickets will be available on the internet but the organisers were not able to say when they would accept bookings.

The draw will be presided over by FIFA Deputy General Secretary Jérôme Champagne. Michael Schumacher and referee Pierluigi Collina a last minute replacement for rock star Sting will make the draws.