Soccer: Irish await Fifa response on ineligible players tip-off

Fifa are expected to ease the Republic of Ireland's fears over possible ineligible players in the Andorra side they face in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier.

An anonymous tip-off to Dublin suggested to the Football Association of Ireland that at least six players in the Andorra squad are playing under false pretences.

It was also alleged that one of the players had already competed for Spain at junior level.

But FAI president Pat Quigley said: "We suspect that the answer to this is that Fifa have given Andorra special dispensation to adopt several players as they are such a young international country but we have heard nothing official from Fifa as yet."

The FAI had passed on to Fifa an anonymous tip that up to six members of the Andorra squad are ineligible to play in Wednesday's clash in Barcelona.

The allegation was that midfielder Marc Bernaus has already played for Spain at competitive junior level while five other unnamed players do not have Andorran passports.

Earlier Bernard O'Byrne, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, said: "This information has been sent to us anonymously by fax to Dublin and my initial suspicion is that it is a complete red herring.

"I would be absolutely amazed if it were true but we feel we are obliged to pass it on to the Fifa commissioner and let him deal with it before the game because we certainly do not want to become embroiled in anything afterwards."

Checks revealed that Bernaus did play for Spain against Ireland in 1997 in the World Under-20 Championships in Malaysia.

But O'Byrne added: "Why is somebody targeting us with this allegation now when some of these players have already played in earlier qualifiers for Andorra, including the game against Holland on Saturday night?"

The FAI were told by the mystery source that another Andorra midfielder, Justo Ruiz, only has a Spanish passport and has played for that country.

If Andorra, which has only been an independent sovereign state since 1993, have been employing 'ringers' in their national side it has yet to do them much good.

They lost all 10 games in trying to qualify for the finals of Euro 2000 and in the current World Cup campaign have been beaten in all six games so far.