On the day that Scots arrive back in Dublin for the first real meeting of the joint working party aimed at organising the FAI and SFA's bid to stage the 2008 European championships, it has emerged that the rival campaign by Switzerland and Austria is in danger of collapsing.
The trouble follows a dispute over a proposed 30,000-seat stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria, where work was due to start this spring. Instead, local businessmen and shopkeepers have objected to the scheme, which is also intended to include a shopping centre. It is not now clear whether permission for the development will be obtained.
According to the website onefootball.com, Austrian FA president Beppo Mauhart insists that "without the stadium there will be no bid and we will have embarrassed ourselves".
He will have to wait until next week to discover whether the scheme will proceed.
The news comes the day after the FAI general secretary, Brendan Menton, with no suitable stadium in sight, expressed confidence that the bid put together with the Scots "would compare favourably" to that submitted to UEFA in late May by the Swiss and Austrians.
Both associations have people working full time on the bid, and Menton said that he is extremely happy with the progress that is being made at the moment.
Before his meeting with the Scots, Menton will be involved this morning with sorting out Ireland's fixture list for the next European Championships qualifying campaign, which gets under way in September.
Representatives of Ireland's qualifying group rivals - Russia, Georgia, Switzerland and Albania - will be in Dublin this morning for the talks at which the match schedule will be hammered out, and Menton repeated his hope that Ireland can again get their toughest games out of the way early on.
"The hope would be to play Russia or Switzerland away first, and the other one away in October," he said. "There are back-to-back dates then, and I think we would be looking to have the third game at home, as I think Mick (McCarthy) would view the idea of having three away matches before Christmas as being a little too risky."
Menton also confirmed that the association's long-abandoned website would be relaunched next week, and promised it would be "one of the most sophisticated football sites" online.
Further details are expected to be released after the weekend.
The dates for the semi-finals of the League Cup have been set. Bohemians and Derry City will meet at 7.45 next Monday at Dalymount Park, while Limerick and Shamrock Rovers are scheduled to clash at 2.30 on Wednesday, February 27th.
