Delaney: FAI eyeing England date

The FAI are keen to secure an early return for England to Lansdowne Road.

While England will not be asked to take part in the first game at the redeveloped 50,000-seater stadium when it re-opens on August 18, 2010, it is hoped they will provide the opposition soon afterwards.

Ireland and England have not met since February 1995 when, with the hosts leading 1-0 through David Kelly’s goal, visiting fans rioted and caused he game to be abandoned.

Ireland have played their home games at Croke Park since work started at Lansdowne, and FAI chief executive John Delaney admitted the historical associations with Bloody Sunday in 1920 mean meeting there is impossible.

However, he is eager to invite England to Lansdowne for a game he insists his country is owed.

Delaney said: “At some stage, I would like to see England play in Lansdowne Road because there is a game owed.

“There was a time when we drew England all the time, back in the late 80s and 90s, but he haven’t come across them too much in the last couple of years.

“Murphy’s Law is that if you do organise for them to come to Ireland, you’ll draw them in a competitive game.

“Bringing them to the old Lansdowne Road would have been difficult, and bring them to Croke Park wouldn’t have been correct given the history.”

Memories of 1995 would inevitably raise security issues, although Delaney is confident the potential problems are not insurmountable.

He said: “There are heightened issues when England play, we all know that. But at some stage, we have to get over the issue of the game being abandoned.

“The English FA have promised a game for many years to make up for that incident.

“There are heightened issues, but that could happen in a qualifier. A friendly should be a more

benign fixture.”