Fans gather for World Cup party

Tens of thousands of soccer fans will pack the Phoenix Park tonight to welcome home their World Cup soccer squad heroes.

The team, cruelly knocked out of the international tournament in South Korea in a penalty shoot-out by Spain on Sunday, are set to top the bill at a special concert in the park.

They will feature at the gig with a cast of showbiz performers just hours after jetting in from the Far East at Dublin airport.

Manager Mick McCarthy and the players are due to touch down shortly before 5pm in a Boeing 747 chartered from the Dutch airline KLM after a 12-hour journey.

They will later be helicoptered direct to Phoenix Park for a free show being staged not far from the official home of President Mary McAleese.

Hopes that the team might parade through the centre of Dublin in an open-top bus were scuppered by fears for the safety of the supporters expected to be on hand to greet the squad.

According to some estimates, as many as 100,000 soccer faithful could crowd into the park for the occasion, which is to be shown live on RTE.

The whole area will be closed to traffic from around midday and a fleet of 150 buses is being laid on to transfer the crowd from the centre of Dublin.

The buses will take fans from George’s Quay in the city centre to the Phoenix Monument and back again after the party, which is due to wind down by 9.30pm.

The park option for the welcome home has been endorsed by Ireland’s number one soccer enthusiast, Bertie Ahern.

He agreed that a city centre procession might have generated a better atmosphere, but said safety issues had made that impossible.

Mr Ahern also pointed to safety fears created when the soccer squad last paraded through the city - after getting to the quarter finals of the 1990 World Cup.

‘‘In the park, it is controllable and there is a vast amount of space. It’s far safer.

‘‘I hope enormous crowds come out - the team deserves that. And I think they will.

‘‘We should all be very proud of our squad.’’

Sports minister John O’Donoghue also backed the Phoenix Park move, declaring: ‘‘Obviously, we have to go by what the security authorities are telling us.’’

And garda spokesman Supt John Farrelly said: ‘‘The decision to have the party in Phoenix Park was taken after consultations with all the relevant authorities. We cannot take the risk that somebody might be injured.

‘‘We simply have not got the capabilities to deal with the numbers that would turn out to greet the team.’’

Mr Ahern had faced pressure to order time off for all workers to permit them to get to the celebrations in time.

Alan Hunter, of the Irish Football Supporters Association, said: ‘‘We want the Taoiseach to give everyone the afternoon off so the whole nation can greet our heroes.’’