FAIscore important early 'goal' for Ireland

IRELAND scored an important early "goal" when the FAI team persuaded their five World Cup opponents to travel to Dublin for the fixtures meeting on Tuesday, February 3.

The FAI delegation initially met some resistance, but when it was pointed out that Ireland will next year hold the presidency of the European Union they made a point that carried some weight. The FAI had finalised a deal for televised coverage of their matches prior to the draw through their agent, Lawrence St John. Chief executive Fran Rooney said the addition of the World Cup matches to a deal put in place a few years ago meant an overall package worth up to E7m to the association.

Mr Rooney said the obvious problem was in relation to a suitable venue for the matches, particularly the match against France, and the officers will have important discussions with manager Brian Kerr before the fixtures meeting.

Ireland have played France in four previous World Cup qualifying tournaments in the 1954 tournament when they lost 3-6 on aggregate; in 1974 when they won 3-2 on aggregate; in 1978 when they lost 1-2 on aggregate and in 1982 when they lost 3-4 on aggregate after a 3-2 win in Dublin over a French team powered by Michel Platini.

Ireland have a history of matches against Switzerland and Cyprus in championships as well, but they have never before played Israel, except in friendly matches, and never met Faroe Islands. The matches against Israel will involve important security measures, but the Israeli delegates were up-beat after the draw when they said they intended to stage all their games in Israel.

Israeli coach Abraham Grant said: "I have watched Ireland play and they play good football. They play at a fast pace and from what I saw in the European Championships I would say they are a typical Irish team." Asked about the political problems surrounding matches he said: "I have no opinion about the political side everybody says that the political question must be on one side and sport must be on another side and I agree with that."

He said: "France are the best team. I think the players are at a good age, the coach is very intelligent and France is number one, not only in our group but in Europe and in the world. It will be very difficult, not just for Israel, but for everybody else to play against France. The realistic picture is that France are in one group and the rest of the teams are in a different group, competing for second place."

France's coach, Jacques Santini, said he would have liked to have signed Damien Duff for Lyon when he was technical director at the club prior to taking over the job as coach to France. He said the fee that Blackburn Rovers were reported to be looking for him was too high so he had not made contact with Blackburn or Duff.

He said: "Apart from Faroes and Ireland, we know all the other teams because they were in our group in the European Championship.

Henrik Larsen, coach to the Faroe Islands, won his 25th international cap for Denmark when he played against Ireland in a World Cup qualifying match in October 1992 in Copenhagen when Denmark were European Champions.

He said: "It will be very exciting for us to meet France and it is a good draw for us. We have some exciting football ahead against Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland and Ireland."