Doubt cast on England visit

AFTER the draw played out in Kiev last night, Ireland wasted no time in accelerating preparations for next summer’s Euro finals with FAI sources confirming that the Czech Republic will be the visitors to the Aviva Stadium for a friendly game on February 29.

However, plans for a long-awaited friendly against England could yet fall foul of UEFA regulations in the short term.

“There’s a rule that you can’t play any of the other teams a month before the tournament starts,” said FAI chief executive John Delaney last night. “The bigger countries have been making representations to UEFA to have that relaxed if the two sides haven’t been drawn in the original group and we’re awaiting the outcome of that. There’s a UEFA meeting next week and if that went favourably then we’d have England in May but it’s contingent on that.”