FAI chief executive John Delaney said yesterday he expects the FAI to have almost half of the money - some €30 million - that it is required to put towards the cost of redeveloping Lansdowne Road in cash by the end of next year. Emmet Malone, Soccer Correspondent, reports.

Delaney, speaking after he and Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton had paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue, said the organisation was already in a strong position financially and with the next 18 months promising to be highly profitable it would achieve the €30 million figure even before a single corporate box for the new ground is sold.

"The fact is that we have reserves of €12 million at the moment and with getting Germany in the qualifying group, the television rights and other factors (such as playing competitive internationals at Croke Park next year) we're confident that we will have €30 million in the bank by then."

The figure may be further boosted by the sale of the FAI's Merrion Square headquarters at the start of 2007 if, as anticipated, office space for up to 200 administrators is in place at Abbotstown by the end of this year.

"The intention is that the space will be available to us by then," he said, "and that we will then be able to have what I would see as a "house of football," with the Leinster FA and Schoolboys FA as well as all of our own people coming together under one roof.

"At that stage we will sit down and decide what to do with Merrion Square but my own preference at this point would be to sell it and put the money towards the cost of the stadium. It's hard to tell what it is worth but with the way the property market here is, it should raise a substantial enough sum."

Asked about reports that some GAA officials are unhappy that the FAI and IRFU would get to use Croke Park next year even if work on the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road has yet to start, he said that the matter was one for the GAA but he added that there had been a series of extremely positive meetings in relation to the usage agreements over the past couple of months and that he was confident the Republic's first scheduled soccer international at the stadium - against Wales next March - would go ahead as planned.

O'Donoghue said he was delighted to see the first phase of the Abbotstown project finally get under way and he said that as soon as the office facilities were in place the laying of pitches and sports facilities would begin.

It is envisaged that this first phase, costing around €120 million, will be completed by the end of 2010 and the minister said that he would soon make appointments to a new board specifically being established to look at ways in which these and other facilities could be used to attract sportspeople to this country during the run-up to the London Olympics.

"The intention is to attract visitors to the country," he said. "We already have a lot of very fine sporting facilities around the country but we believe that by ensuring that phase one of this development is in place in the timeframe envisaged that we are providing an added incentive to those preparing for London to come here first."

Staunton, meanwhile, said he intends to bring a squad of 30 players to Spain or Portugal in May for the training camp he has planned during the build-up to the friendly international against Chile.

The Ireland manager cited the virtual guarantee of good weather in either country as the reason for the trip which, he believes, will stand to his squad "over the next two years."

"It's the only chance we're going to get to spend a few days doing the sort of work on set pieces and other aspects of our game that I want to do," he said.

"It's not going to happen in the build-up to the Holland game or the trip to Germany so it's important that we take the opportunity to do as much as we can on a trip like this.

It is," he added, "a training camp, not a summer camp."

He went on to welcome yesterday's development in relation to Abbotsown, saying the new facility would be a major boost to the development of young players. "As you've heard, the Government and the FAI are working to a four or five-year plan for the development of the game and I've got my own four-year plan too. What we'd all like to see is a situation where there aren't so many youngsters going over to England and then coming back and then being lost to the game because there isn't the proper system for bringing them through in place.

"What something like Abbotstown will mean, when it is fully up and running, is that we'll have something more to offer young players here while even those who do go away will have something better to come home to if things don't work out for them."