Mick McCarthy's search for suitable competition for the Republic of Ireland in the approach to their European championship programme, may take them to the Czech Republic in the New Year.

It emerged yesterday that the Czechs have now supplanted Switzerland as the most likely opposition for the Irish in March, at the start of a three-game build up to their European schedule in the autumn.

"We are still in contact with officials in both countries but at this point it's looking more like the Czech Republic," said Bernard O'Byrne, the FAI's chief executive. "Proposals for the game have already been discussed and hopefully we will be in a position to finalise arrangements shortly."

After earlier indications that the Swiss were ready to host a fixture at Berne in the last week in March, they are now having second thoughts ahead of the appointment of a new national team coach in the New Year.

With due regard for protocol, they have decided to ascertain the new man's thoughts before committing the national team to a definite programme and in that situation the FAI decided to look elsewhere.

In the event, the second option would almost certainly be more attractive to McCarthy. The Czechs have long been recognised as one of Europe's more formidable soccer nations, a point suitably illustrated in the last European championship.

Undeniably, their form slumped in the World Cup preliminaries in which a double defeat by Yugoslavia and a shock 2-1 loss to Slovakia ended their hopes of qualifying for the finals in France next summer.

That McCarthy should be enthused at the prospect of taking on the Czechs is scarcely surprising for it was to Prague that he took his team for his first away assignment as Ireland manager in April of last year.

After a fine first half performance in which the visitors traded easily at parity they hit the pain barrier in the closing half hour when goals from Frydek and Kuka effectively ended hopes of a first win for the new management team.

Significantly, it was a 1-0 win over Czechoslovakia in Reykjavik back at the start of Jack Charlton's reign which gave hope of a new dawn and McCarthy will be looking for a similar portent if the March fixture goes ahead.

Discussions on the opening international game of the season in Dublin in April are still fluid but it looks as if Mexico will be filling the vacant date at Lansdowne Road the following month.

Hopes that Brazil would be available to play at Lansdowne Road at an advanced stage of their preparations for their defence of the World Cup were dashed because of the size of the financial guarantees being sought. Money was also the principal cause of the breakdown in talks for the visit of either Argentina or Colombia.

Mexico didn't exactly fill the Irish football public with excitement on the last occasion they played here in 1984 but since then there have been a couple of eventful duels abroad to whet the appetite for a return visit.

The first of these ended in some controversy in the World Cup finals in America in 1994 when Jack Charlton nd John Aldridge both clashed with authority in the course of a 2-1 defeat.

Only prestige was at stake when they met again in the Giants Stadium in New Jersey in June of last year when two Irish players, Liam Daish and Niall Quinn, were sent off, followed soon after by McCarthy in the course of a 2-2 draw.

This latest fixture, if it materialises, may prove no less illuminating as the Irish management team begin to come to terms with the news, expected to be confirmed officially this week, that they have been relegated to the flight of third seeded countries for the European championship.

It means that the wheel has now come full circle for the Irish since the infant days of Jack Charlton's reign and the certainty is that qualification for the finals will now prove even more treacherous.

As a means of grooming new talent for that challenge, McCarthy has requested that a B international game be put in place for Tolka Park in February. Hopes that Scotland would provide the opposition have been doomed by the Scots' domestic programme and the likelihood is that Northern Ireland will now fill the vacancy.