SOCCER:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland will kick off their preparations for the rather daunting challenge that lies ahead of them in Poland next June with a friendly game against the Czech Republic in Dublin on February 29th, the FAI confirmed last night.

The association’s chief executive, John Delaney, reacted positively to the offer of the game from the Czechs who had been scheduled to play Greece prior to ending up in the same group as them at last night’s draw in Kiev.

The bigger prize for the FAI of a friendly game against England immediately prior to the tournament hangs in the balance, however, after it emerged that Uefa currently prohibits games between sides that have both qualified for the tournament during the 30 days before it begins.

“That’s a Uefa rule,” said Delaney at the Palace Ukrainia in Kiev after the draw last night. “But the bigger countries have been asking to have it relaxed if the two sides haven’t been drawn together in the original group and we’re awaiting an outcome of that.”

The fact that Ireland could actually meet Fabio Capello’s side in Kiev or Donetsk at the quarter-final stage of the competition is not viewed as a problem by the English, Delaney insists.

“Certainly they still want to play us and certainly they want to play us in May,” he said, “but it requires a relaxation of the rule and various countries, including ourselves, have made representations to Uefa asking: ‘How can you have good competitive friendlies in May if 15 teams are ruled out of the equation?’ We’ll have to wait and see how that goes.”

The bottom line is there will be games in May, including “a send-off” game at the Aviva Stadium after which the Irish will head for Poland via a training camp, possibly in Portugal.

Delaney said that he was pleased overall with how the draw had gone and satisfied with the way the search for a training camp was progressing in light of events last night.

The team, it seems, will be based in either Gdynia, just outside Gdansk, or one of the training camps at Wroclaw, itself a venue city for teams playing in the other group that is based in Poland.

The Swedes currently have first refusal on the facility in the former but they have indicated that they may now cancel after being drawn to play in Ukraine. If they don’t then assuming Trapattoni likes what he sees when he travels to see both next week, Wroclaw it will be.

More important, of course, will be Ireland’s actual games and the fact that they will be against hugely attractive opposition in two venues, Gdansk and Poznan, that are relatively close to each other and fairly easy to access from home, is all good news for supporters hoping to travel.

“It’s great for the supporters because there’s not much travelling involved compared to what there would have been in the Ukraine,” Delaney said.

“The first thing now will be to ensure that the people who follow us to games, our regular supporters, get tickets. We’ve made that commitment so the people who travelled to Andorra, to Slovakia, to Tallinn, they’re our priority.”

Sales are due to start in nine days time through the Uefa website’s ticket portal but the FAI will not be helped as it struggles to cope with demand by the cuts in official allocations to participating associations announced yesterday.

The percentage of the stadium capacity going to supporters of each side will be reduced from 20 per cent to 16 per cent in the initial phase, which translates into roughly 6,400 tickets for each of Ireland’s group games, while the set figure of 6,000 for the quarters and semis will be go down to just 5,000.

“This makes it easier logistically than when we have 20 per cent of the capacity for each finalist,” said Uefa’s Head of Operation of Operations for Euro 2012 Martin Kallen, who must have been a happy man after last night’s draw given that he had said last month that the tournament will “vibrate” if the hosts can do well.

“Some countries do not have as many supporters and we want to give local people a chance to ensure we have full stadiums.”

He conceded that tickets to see some countries, like England, will be oversubscribed and acknowledged that in the case of Ireland.

“If you get to the qualifying then I think you could take the whole stadium; that is clear but these are now the rules and that is something you cannot change,” he added.