THE UNCERTAINTY surrounding the choice of venue for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup qualifying game against Georgia on Saturday week was finally resolved yesterday when Fifa confirmed German second division club FSV Mainz would host the game at their Bruchweg stadium, with a local kick-off time of 6pm (5pm Irish time).
The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) announced yesterday morning they had reached agreement with their German counterparts and Mainz, with Fifa, having ruled out Tbilisi for security reasons, approving the venue later in the day.
"After carefully assessing the situation it was decided that the match will take place at a neutral venue due to the current unrest in Georgia," said Fifa.
Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney welcomed the decision, while admitting it had taken too long. "We applied as much pressure as we could on Fifa and the GFF to get clarity as quickly as we could and it certainly dragged on longer than we would have liked - the fans who follow us all over the world deserved to have clarity on this before now."
The FAI have asked the GFF to inform them, as soon as possible, of the ticket allocation for the match and have sent officials to Mainz to "negotiate a ticketing operation" for Irish supporters at the stadium in the days leading up to the game.
Delaney initially understood the capacity for the game would be 22,000 but because part of the ground is made up of terracing, which cannot be used for international fixtures, it is in fact just 10,400, as confirmed by FSV Mainz president Harald Strutz.
Karlsruhe SC had, on Wednesday, declined to host the game because, they said, their stadium, with 15,237 seats, was "not worthy of the event".
In the 2005-06 season Mainz, who are moving to a new stadium next year, played their three Uefa Cup home games, against Spanish, Icelandic and Armenian opposition, in Frankfurt because of the limited capacity of their own ground, located on the city's Dr Martin Luther King Way.
The club is, nonetheless, enthusiastic about hosting the World Cup qualifier. "We are pleased that we can help out the Georgian federation at short notice," said Strutz. "For our fans this will be an interesting and unusual football event. We also look forward to the visit of many fans from Ireland."
How many supporters will travel from Ireland for the game remains to be seen in light of spectacular price-hiking in air fares to Germany, notably to nearby Frankfurt, since Karlsruhe was first mooted as the venue and, yesterday, Mainz was confirmed.
In one instance yesterday afternoon a supporter and his son were quoted a return fare, from Dublin to Frankfurt, of €200 each - when, 10 minutes later, they decided to take up the flights the fare had risen to €500 each. Father and son will be watching the game on television in Dublin.
While the exceptional circumstances surrounding the fixture make Fifa's decision to move the game to a neutral venue understandable the other group eight contenders - Italy, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Montenegro - are unlikely to be impressed by Ireland avoiding a trip to Tbilisi. Cyprus and Bulgaria are due to play their qualifying games in the Georgian capital in October, with Montenegro scheduled to travel there in April of next year and Italy the following September.
One man who won't be making the trip to Mainz, nor to Montenegro four days later, is Damien Duff who has been ruled out of both qualifying games with the knee injury he sustained against Bolton last weekend.
The Newcastle winger's name was absent from the 22-man squad announced ahead of schedule yesterday by Giovanni Trapattoni, with his club manager Kevin Keegan having earlier confirmed that Duff would be out "for three or four weeks".
Returning to the squad is Paul McShane who has yet to play for Sunderland this season after needing an operation on a fractured knee-cap during the summer. Charlton Athletic manager Alan Pardew confirmed yesterday the Championship club is interested in signing the defender who has fallen further down the pecking order at Sunderland following the arrival of Pascal Chimbonda and Anton Ferdinand.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND UNDER-21 SQUAD (for European Championship qualifying games against Bulgaria and Portugal):Henderson (Bristol City), Redmond (Nottingham Forest), Coleman (Sligo Rovers), Nolan (Blackburn Rovers), Dennehy (Cardiff City), Gleeson (Stockport), Liddle (Sunderland), Ryan (Accrington Stanley), Garvan (Ipswich Town), Berrett (Huddersfield Town), Spillane (Norwich City), Treacy (Blackburn Rovers), Judge (Blackburn Rovers), Scannell (Crystal Palace), Sheridan (Celtic), Madden (Shamrock Rovers), Bermingham (UCD), McCarthy (Hamilton Academical).
