THE FAI is to receive around 9,000 tickets for the World Cup 2010 group eight qualifier in Bari on April 1st, the organisation’s chief executive, John Delaney, confirmed yesterday.

The size of the allocation, well above what the Italians were obliged to provide, has been influenced in part by segregation issues in the lower tier of the San Nicola stadium which was built for the 1990 World Cup.

Delaney said he was pleased with the number involved but frustrated by the relatively short notice of where the game would be played that was given by the host federation with the Italians having waited almost until the deadline set by Fifa before confirming Bari as the venue.

“For the Irish supporters it would have been nice to go back to Rome, to the scene of one of the highlight’s in the team’s history, the World Cup quarter-final against Italy. But we’re happy to go to Bari and happy with the number of tickets we’re to get – it should certainly be enough to cater for demand. We just would have liked to have known the details a little bit earlier because it has made planning for the game a little awkward, particularly for supporters, some of whom effectively took a bet on the game being in Rome by booking flights.”

Delaney said that details of the Irish team’s preparations for the other big away game of the first half of the year – in Bulgaria in early June – will be made public over the next couple of weeks.

He denied reports that there will be a training camp in Cagliari or Sardinia but it still seems possible that the squad will use an Italian base as they look to bridge the gap between the end of the British season and the trip to Sofia, although another FAI official insisted this week nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Asked about the ongoing absence of Stephen Ireland from the squad Delaney was, predictably, diplomatic, insisting that Giovanni Trapattoni had done everything that might be reasonably be expected to get the Manchester city midfielder to end his exile and that the issue is now one for the player to resolve. “Really it’s a question for Giovanni but the fact is that he went and met with Stephen and the ball was left in his court. You can’t make somebody do something that they are unwilling or unable to do.”

And Delaney backed the position taken by his counterpart at the IRFU, Philip Browne, in relation to the use of Croke Park for football or rugby internationals after the completion of Lansdowne Road.

“It was right that the Irish teams didn’t have to play away and we’re grateful to the GAA for their help with that, but when Lansdowne Road is reopened we will have contracts with suppliers, with the people who buy 10-year tickets, with whoever buys the naming rights for the stadium and it would be fairly unreasonable to play games at Croke Park during the tenure of those contracts.

“I mean you can’t sell a 10-year ticket to somebody but tell them “by the way, we’re going to Croke Park next week because it’s a particularly big game and you’ve only got a general admission ticket”.

Delaney was speaking at a press conference to announce the radio station Newstalk is to be a “top tier” sponsor of the League of Ireland for next season. The broadcaster joins Eircom as one of the competition’s main backers and the company’s chief executive, Elaine Geraghty, said the deal is a good one for the station.

With the licensing process still to be negotiated, though, Delaney admitted that it is likely to be the middle of next month before the line-up for the league’s top two divisions is finalised. “It’s not ideal,” he conceded, “but we have to remember that Drogheda are involved in a court case and, while I hope they survive, we can’t predict what’s going to happen.

“With regard to the licensing, there will be the initial process and then an appeals’ procedure to be gone through so it’s going to take some time but all we can do is try to be patient and allow the time required to do things fairly.”

The outcome of United’s examinership case will not now be known until at least next Thursday following the adjournment yesterday by Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan of the High Court hearing to decide the club’s fate.

“We’re a bit disappointed because it means we have a week less to prepare for the new season in the event that we do get through the examinership but, to be honest, we felt the actual hearing went well,” said club spokesman Terry Collins.

“The judge said that it was a remarkable achievement for us to have reached the point where we are today so we’re satisfied that she understood that we’re more than a company. But she wants clarification of the status of the money raised by the supporters and we will have to satisfy her before going back to court next week that the money is not a loan.”

The Revenue Commissioners have yet to make known their position on the offer made by the club in respect of its debts but a majority of the club’s other creditors indicated their support for the terms of the settlement on offer on Wednesday despite the fact that some will receive as little as two per cent of what they are owed.