BID FOR 2008 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: As with most big GAA stories there was little to suggest that this was coming. Yesterday evening it was almost casually announced that a GAA delegation would be meeting the Government to discuss the possibility of Croke Park being made available for the purposes of the Euro '08 bid.One indicator was the growing hopelessness of the Taoiseach's position in trying to copperfasten the FAI bid to co-host with the Scottish FA the 2008 tournament. Two stadiums were needed for the bid but with Stadium Ireland parked until after the general election there was no second venue to go with Lansdowne Road.

There was a great circular irony in the events of yesterday. It was the Taoiseach's decision to grant £60 million to the GAA nearly a year ago that prompted the first major spat between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats on the issue of Stadium Ireland.

Part of the resolution of those differences was the commisioning of the High-Point Rendell report into the feasibility of the project. The report's findings were instrumental in Stadium Ireland being parked until after the coming general election and although Fianna Fail is expected to include construction of the Abbotstown stadium in its election manifesto, the PDs have always been less enthusiastic about the idea.

Having tried to make the GAA's grant conditional on agreement to open Croke Park to other sports, the Tánaiste Mary Harney had to back down but her comments yesterday have once again turned up the heat on the GAA. The refusal to yield on the issue of Stadium Ireland - which allowing it to go forward as a prospective venue would entail - gets the whole sports lobby where one suspects the Tánaiste wants it: either play soccer at Croke Park or no European Championship bid.

Questioned about her reluctance to allow Stadium Ireland to be used for the purposes of the bidding process she referred to the potential of Lansdowne Road and Croke Park: "There are two stadia in Dublin. It's a matter for others to decide whether or not they're to be made available to secure this bid." Asked how this was practical given that the GAA's current rules don't allow for such an eventuality, the response was pointed: "That question will have to be addressed to the GAA."

It says something about the Taoiseach's wariness of his deputy that he obviously felt more confident about approaching the GAA to stage a soccer tournament at short notice than trying to get Harney to alter her views on the matter.

So where does all of this leave the GAA? The prospect of soccer being played at Croke Park had been greatly improved of late with the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) recently recommending movement on Rule 42, which has been used to prohibit non-Gaelic games being played on GAA grounds. But although 2008 is six years away, the steps necessary to open up Croke Park have not yet been taken.

Nonetheless the GAA can feel a draught when it's coming. Just as the association's television policy was dragged into the sunlight simply because the England-Ireland rugby match wasn't available free-to-air, there was a queasy feeling on Jones's Road that they were in line to get the blame for Scotland not being allowed to host the European soccer championship.

It wouldn't be the association's style to cave in to that sort of pressure but with Rule 42 apparently on the way out, GAA president Seán McCague obviously felt comfortable allowing the Government to base the Euro bid on the potential availability of Croke Park, should April's congress repeal Rule 42 and Central Council agree to offer the venue.

It's funny to reflect on what can happen in less than a year. When the £60 million was announced on the eve of last year's congress, there was a certain amount of cynicism about its timing - arriving as it did conveniently to undermine the financial argument for opening Croke Park during the following day's debate on the matter. An open Croke Park wouldn't have done the prospects of Stadium Ireland any good and there was no reason to imagine that the Taoiseach would be unhappy at the reform motion's narrow defeat.

Now Bertie Ahern would appear to need the GAA to open up if the bid for the 2008 championships - an ideal showcase for Stadium Ireland - is to even get off the ground.

In truth it's hard to see how the Abbotstown proposal can survive all of this. If the GAA delivers Croke Park as a potential venue what would be the point in building Stadium Ireland? If the application to UEFA falls, the major event the project needs evaporates.

There is little doubt left, even within the GAA rank-and-file, that Croke Park should be open. The arguments were all made a year ago and ranged from the practicalities of financing the stadium maintenance to the inappropriateness of an organisation that gladly avails of the facilities of other sports retaining such an exclusionary rule.

Mr Ahern appreciates better than any of his predecessors as Taoiseach that the GAA reacts badly to pressure and he has been scrupulous about acting accordingly.

According to GAA sources the pressure exerted last night "wasn't that bad". The association would recognise that Ahern has been as generous a benefactor as the GAA has had in high office and presumably didn't mind endorsing his conditional proposal of Croke Park as a venue for the FAI bid. It has also been pointed out that the argument to remove Rule 42 commands the support of some heavy hitters within the GAA, most prominently former president Peter Quinn.

The long-term prospects of the Scottish-Irish bid aren't by any means certain but the GAA have avoided being the barrier to its chances of success. Ahern knows that the agreement last night, if accepted by the SFA and UEFA, only moves the bid onto its next deadline at the end of May.

But as other problems have taught him, the imminent obstacle is the most important.