The FAI said yesterday they are to urgently seek a meeting with the Taoiseach to hear his views on the latest plans for the national stadium and to seek reassurances regarding the commitments made by Mr Ahern on funding when the association made its decision to abandon its Eircom Park project.

These latter concerns arose yesterday when the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, suggested that all of the funding promised to the various sporting bodies in connection to the stadium project might now have to be cancelled.

The association is due some €25 million in additional funding over the next two years as the second and third phases of a three-part agreement which arose directly out of its decision to back the Government's plans for a stadium at Abbottstown.

"We're disappointed with Mr McCreevy's comments this morning," said FAI treasurer John Delaney after the association's management committee considered the current situation in Dublin yesterday.

"We look on the agreement we had with the Taoiseach, the letter that he sent to our president in March of last year and the verbal agreements we reached subsequently with him as absolutely non-negotiable," said Delaney.

"The first phase of that funding came on stream this year," he added "and we expect the other two portions to be honoured in absolute terms."

On the stadium issue there is dismay within the association not only that the stadium might not go ahead but that, even if it does, the involvement of the private sector could fundamentally alter the terms under which the scheme was originally sold to the body's leading members.

"It is a key factor," said Delaney. "We agreed to something that was based on fairly specific terms and we will be looking to find out as quickly as possible what deal might be in it for us if this thing really is to be built with private money."

Delaney said that the priorities in the current situation were to secure the continuation of the development funding promised, obtain reassurances on the stadium issue and seek confirmation of the Government's ongoing support for the joint bid with Scotland for Euro 2008 - in that order.

The bid, though, looks to be fairly unsalvageable after the Government placed ads in newspapers seeking broad expressions of interest in providing finance for the national stadium by October 18th.

Even allowing that UEFA's delegation might be persuaded when they visit Ireland and Scotland early next week that things are still manageable, the new timetable allows the association less than two months before their final presentation to the European body in mid-December, with the decision due to be taken at Nyon in Switzerland on the 13th of that month.

Asked what the chances were of the association having something credible to go into that presentation with, the FAI's general secretary said "it depends on the Government".

"The bid," he observed, "was always predicated on the Government's support and they gave us a commitment that we had it. What we are saying to them now is that if they deliver on the support then we can deliver these championships and I don't think, with the hundreds of thousands of visitors, the hundreds of millions of euro in revenue and the enormous international prestige that are at stake that the Government will want to throw away that opportunity."

The association's plan now is to make contact with the Government at the start of next week with the intention of arranging a meeting with Bertie Ahern. Before the meeting the organisation's leading officials will sit down with their opposite numbers from the IRFU with whom, Menton said, "we share many common interests in the present situation". The two bodies are likely to negotiate separately, however, although both now seem to agree that, wherever it might end up being, their future lies together.

Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey, meanwhile, has described the ongoing uncertainty regarding the financing of the proposed national stadium as "ludicrous" and said the situation was "impacting heavily on Ireland's image abroad".

Hickey said that the loss of the stadium and associated facilities would impact heavily on sport in Ireland and added that having seen the development of quality facilities in so many other countries he felt it was clear that "to our shame, with a couple of notable exceptions, Ireland is being left in the "ha'penny" place in this regard."

"It is interesting," he added, "that those countries who have succeeded in the Olympic Games and international events built their basic set of stadia up to 20 years beforehand. We should be doing the same thing in Ireland and building up our sporting infrastructure now instead of putting decisions on the long finger."