Ireland manager Mick McCarthy may not know the identity of the opposition in the World Cup play-offs until less than two weeks before the first of the scheduled games if, as is now expected, the Republic finish second in Group Two following next month's final round of matches.
The second group stages of the Asian qualifying competition are currently being played out with the 10 teams involved due to play every week until the middle of October but no date has yet been set for the single play-off game between the two second placed sides, the winner of which will then go on to meet either Ireland or Portugal.
The game will take place in a neutral venue, either Qatar or Hong Kong, and the hope is that, with the group matches due to be wrapped up on October 19th, the game could be played on the last weekend of the month, leaving just a fortnight for the FAI to complete its arrangements for the play-offs.
FIFA, meanwhile, have said that in the event of Iraq qualifying as the Asian representative, their "home" leg will almost certainly be moved out of Baghdad. Most European countries advise their citizens not to travel to Iraq and many have had no diplomatic relations with the country for the past 10 years.
The legacy of the gulf war has already impacted on Iraq's qualification campaign with the upcoming game against Saudi Arabia, scheduled for October 5th, having been moved to Amman in Jordan. The city is the most likely alternative venue for any qualification play-off also.
McCarthy, meanwhile, may be without a regular right back for next month's final group game against Cyprus. Gary Kelly will be suspended after his sending off on Saturday while Steve Carr yesterday admitted that an operation on the knee problem remains a possibility.
"I've just been told to rest it and it will take a while," he told his club's officials website, "Hopefully it will calm down and I won't need to go down the road of having an operation but you never know."
FAI general secretary Brendan Menton now says that Mick McCarthy is, in fact, contracted to the association until February of the new year, contradicting claims made over the weekend that the Ireland manager's deal expired before the play-offs.
On Sunday Menton said he would be checking the terms of the contract as soon as he had the opportunity as he was not familiar with it but if McCarthy's associates were claiming it was on the verge of expiring, he had no reason to doubt their word.
Yesterday, however, the association issued a statement to the effect that the deal does extend into the new year after all and that, while there would still be talks over McCarthy's long term future, "there is no great urgency and so they will take place in due course." The Irish under-19s take on Canada at Longford this evening in the first of two friendlies to be played this week. This evening's game kick off at 7.30, as does Thursday night's second meeting which is due to take place at Home Farm's, Whitehall.
RT╔ will carry live overage of Wednesday night's group two match between Cyprus and Portugal on Network 2 at 6.30 p.m.. The station had originally been scheduled to broadcast the match between the Netherlands and Estonia.
Brian Kerr has named three locally based players in his under-18 panel for next week's international tournament in the Czech Republic.
IRELAND UNDER-18: Darren Kelly (Ipswich Town), Simon Cox (Reading), Kieran Sharkey (Belvedere), Pierre Ennis (Aston Villa), Conor Kenna (Coventry City), Vincent Tyrrell (Home Farm), Chris McGrath (Liverpool), Glen Whelan (Manchester City), Paul Keegan (Leeds United), Neil McCafferty (Charlton Athletic), Colin Keenan (Derby County), Stephen Bradley (Arsenal), Darren Potter (Liverpool), Niall Ritchie (West Ham), Stephen Maguire (Belvedere), Robbie Shields (Leeds United), Stephen Elliott (Manchester City), Gerard Rowe (Sunderland).
