With the distraction of Wednesday night's game in Athens out of the way, the FAI's officer board will meet this evening in order to draw up a plan for the implementation of the Genesis report that can be presented to next Friday's meetings of the association's council and board of management.

After the adverse publicity generated by comments from FAI president Milo Corcoran to the effect that the plan could take up to five years to properly implement, the association issued a statement yesterday insisting that the required changes would be made "at the earliest opportunity".

No time-frame is mentioned in the statement but the officers can have been left in no doubt by the reaction to Corcoran's remarks in Athens that when they present their recommendations to next week's meetings anything which appears to endorse the views he expressed will open the association up to yet another battering from outside.

Corcoran, though, had better news yesterday when he revealed that the UEFA committee assessing the technical aspects of the various bids to host the European Championships in 2008 had ranked the Ireland/Scotand bid as joint-best along with that of Austria and Switzerland.

Members of the assessment panel have visited all of the nations involved in the bidding process over the past three months and despite all of the problems associated with the stadium issue here, it appears that they continue to see the Irish and Scottish bid as a credible and strong contender ahead of next month's final decision-making process.

Being rated in the top two is an important boost for the bid as UEFA has yet to decide whether the final vote will be on a shortlist of two or three but this committee's report suggests that the bid stands a good chance of making it through to the final stage of the process even if five of the bids are dispensed with at the final vetting stage. It also looks to be a blow to the Nordic bid which is seen as the other main contender. The process is due to be concluded on the 13th of December at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon.

Don Givens, meanwhile, insisted yesterday that Ireland still have the potential to make it to the European Championships in Portugal in 2004, although he concedes that the play-offs would be the Republic's most likely route.

"I would like to think that we can still do it," he said, "although with seven points to make up on the group leaders, we've obviously got a mountain to climb in terms of winning the group and so, realistically, we're looking at getting ourselves a play-off place."

Givens was speaking as he returned home following Wednesday's draw in Athens, a game he maintained should be viewed in a positive light despite the rather dismal spectacle it provided.

"I like to think that we've steadied things a little bit with this," he added. "We didn't want to suffer three defeats on the trot so it was important not to lose the game. That was the objective when we came here and we obtained it, so from that point of view I'm happy with the outcome."

The former international striker also expressed satisfaction with the way the Irish defence had held out during a second half dominated by the home side. "I knew for a while that we could have done with the pace of somebody like Richie Partridge, but bringing him on would probably have meant removing a piece of the defensive jigsaw which was performing solidly if unspectacularly up until then.

"I didn't want to change anything on that front because I thought they were coping fairly well and I think the fact that we kept a clean sheet is another positive thing to reflect on after what has been a difficult spell for the team."

The manager expressed some sympathy for Glen Crowe who had suffered from the lack of any real service as the Irish came under sustained pressure during the second half, but said that the 24-year-old striker's overall performance was further evidence of the improvement in the standard of the league in Ireland.

"I think that's been shown at under-21 level where I've had four or five lads in over the past couple of years," he said. "And while it was difficult for Glen, and he tired a bit at the end, he certainly didn't look out of place." Givens, however, admitted to feeling just a little out of place himself and once again he declared himself entirely happy to be returning now to his full-time role with the under-age team.

"I get great enjoyment from being involved with the development of young players, helping to push them on through to the senior side, just as I got a great thrill anytime somebody made their debut for Arsenal.

"I'm looking forward to getting back into that now. We have a game against Northern Ireland, in Cork I think, on the 11th of February and that will a useful exercise for us." By then, he expects, the new senior manager will be preparing for his first game in charge, against Scotland the following night at Hampden Park, but the selection process is not something that he says he wishes to have any influence on at all. "As under-21 manager I don't think that I should be involved," he says. "But I look forward to working with whoever ends up being appointed."