Ireland looks forward to welcoming Italy

The Republic of Ireland can look forward to hosting champions Italy following the qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup.

Ireland will also face tricky games against Bulgaria and Cyprus – to whom they suffered a humiliating 5-2 defeat during their unsuccessful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign – in Group Eight.

Georgia and Montenegro completed the group drawn for Ireland in South Africa yesterday.

Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney was satisfied with the draw and is already looking forward to welcoming the World Cup holders to Croke Park.

“It’ll be something special with 76,000 people in the stadium,” he said. “We’ve got Cyprus for the third time in a row but from our perspective, although we are the third seed in the group, we’ll be going for the play-offs.”

The Irish are currently without a national team manager following the recent departure of Steve Staunton but Delaney hopes the vacancy will be filled before February’s friendly with Brazil.

Former England boss Terry Venables has been widely linked with the job but Delaney refused to go into detail.

“We’ve spoken to about 25 people over the last couple of weeks in terms of the type of manager we should have,” he added.

“A number of people have contacted us saying they would like to have the job. There is certainly a greater level of interest this time than last.

“We’ve got a better squad now than 18 months ago, a better playing pool. Secondly we are in a better financial position this time round and are prepared to put more money on the table. Our preference would be to have someone in place before the Brazil game.”