The Football Association of Ireland was last night at loggerheads with leading Dublin club Shelbourne over the security arrangements for the UEFA Cup first qualifying match against Scottish giants Rangers at Tolka Park tomorrow week.
Shelbourne announced over the weekend that it would allocate just under 5,000 of the 11,000 seats to Rangers fans. Last night, however, FAI general secretary Bernard O'Byrne expressed "grave concern" at the proportion of tickets offered to the Scots. "The figure for matches like this is normally around 10 per cent of the capacity and in a stadium of 11,000 that would be adequate," he said.
"As it is, the influx of that number of supporters, given the present situation, has the potential for problems."
Shelbourne secretary Ollie Byrne reacted angrily to O'Byrne's comments, insisting that the allocation of 5,000 tickets for Rangers had been agreed at a meeting last week which was attended by representatives of both clubs, the Garda Siochana and the FAI's security officer Joe McGlue.
"The only thing that there was any question about was which sections of the ground would be used to accommodate the visiting fans," said Byrne. "McGlue made a suggestion but the Garda agreed that our plans were the better option and that's the basis on which we've made our plans now."
The FAI has no authority to interfere with a game that is under the supervision of UEFA and Byrne insisted that Shelbourne would proceed with the distribution of tickets as announced if the Garda agreed.
Meanwhile, Shelbourne's new manager has signed two players from his former club, Home Farm Everton. Graham Doyle and Stephen Gifford made their first appearance for the club in a friendly game against the Irish under-18 team last night in Clonsaugh.
Shelbourne won 1-0, with Mick Neville scoring, but under-18 manager Brian Kerr was happy with the performance. Kerr's side plays its last warm-up match before the European Championships tournament next week against a team of United Nations soldiers in Cyprus on Thursday.
Richard Dunne, who is suspended for the Croatia game, and Robbie Keane sat out last night's match due to minor knocks while central defender Gary Doherty, who has been suffering from a throat infection had to be replaced early in the second period. But Kerr was confident that all three would be fit to take part in next week's tournament.
Before then it is expected that Kerr's assistant, Noel O'Reilly, will be confirmed as one of the FAI's new provincial heads of coaching, a fulltime position that would require O'Reilly severing his links with St Patrick's Athletic.
St Patrick's, who are expected to sign midfielder Martin Russell from Portadown today, have recruited former St Francis boss Pete Mahon into their management team as cover for O'Reilly.
