Plans afoot to bring England back to Dublin

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI is optimistic that Ireland will host England in a long-awaited friendly in Dublin next year — assuming, of course, that the two countries are not scheduled to meet in the European Championship finals, the draw for which takes place in Kiev on December 2.

FAI chief executive John Delaney said he too was confident a game would take place, given England “owe” Ireland one after their infamous last meeting, a friendly back in 1995, had to be abandoned after rioting by visiting fans at Lansdowne Road.

“Yes, maybe we have already this appointment,” said Trapattoni yesterday. “For two years we have asked and their diary was busy but now I think England will accept.”

However, there are still some logistical problems to be overcome. Yesterday, sources at the FA in London agreed that a friendly against Ireland was overdue but pointed out that they have already pencilled in a game against Holland on the next available international date on February 29.

But should England draw the Dutch, and not Ireland, in the Euro finals, then a friendly between the two neighbours could be back on the agenda for that date. Otherwise, the game would have to wait until the next available friendly dates just before the finals in the first week of June. And with England planning to play the last of their warm-up games at Wembley on June 5, it means a match in Dublin could only take place on either June 1 or 2.

Yesterday, Marco Tardelli said he saw no reason why such a blockbuster friendly couldn’t happen so close to the finals themselves.

“Why not?” he said. “It will be a good thing for England and for us. Because it is very important to play against a big team before the cup.”

While tomorrow’s play-off second leg games can still have a bearing on the seedings for the finals, it’s already determined that Ireland will be in the fourth pot, while Holland and Spain, along with hosts Poland and Ukraine will be first seeds. England will be seeded second alongside Italy, Germany and one other while Greece and Sweden will be among the third seeds.

“We wait for the draw,” said Giovanni Trapattoni, “but we have enough information from watching DVDs of all the teams. Of course, we will also go to see the teams we will have to play. We will know every little hair on the head of every opponent.”