Martin O’Neill hoping for a rub of the green

Even though the vexed matter of qualification for the Euro finals in France next year is a much more pressing concern, Ireland will today learn their qualifying destiny for the World Cup in Russia in 2018 when the preliminary draw takes place in St Petersburg, kicking off at 4pm Irish time.

Martin O’Neill has already expressed surprise at the World Cup draw taking place well before the Euro qualifying campaign has run its course but the manager will still be part of the FAI delegation at the Konstantin Palace today when Ireland will be one of 52 European teams — Russia, as hosts, are exempted and Gibraltar are not yet members of Fifa — going into seven groups of six and two of five, with the games set to take place between September 4 2016 and October 10 2017.

It should also be noted that, for television purposes, Uefa have requested that England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands must be drawn into groups containing six teams.