The Republic of Ireland will kick off their qualification for World Cup 2006 in Germany with a tie at home to Cyprus on 4th Sept 2004.
The Group 4 fixtures were agreed at a meeting in Dublin, Tuesday and continued for much longer than anticipated. Resulting in some of the delegations postponing their returns home.
FAI CEO Fran Rooney said he was delighted with the outcome of the World Cup 2006 fixtures meeting held in Dublin today.
“Our team was well prepared for the meeting which was a long and challenging negotiation session but we attained a very positive outcome”, Rooney said. “It was important to nail down the key fixtures as well as avoiding a double away trip which we’ve succeeded in doing”, he said. “All other countries had their positions and negotiated very strongly but we achieved our main priorities and are very happy with the overall outcome”, he added.
FAI President Milo Corcoran chaired the meeting which he described as a “difficult day’s negotiation but with a very worthwhile result”.
Ireland will play the critical home match against France late in the campaign in September 2005 with the away trip to Paris in October 2004. The Irish side’s final game of the qualifying campaign will be at home against Switzerland.
Manger Brian Kerr said that we have gained a very positive outcome. “We achieved a lot in today’s session and it’s particularly good to start with a home game and end with one also in a difficult group”, he said. “We haven’t got everything we wanted but nobody has and we’ve done really well to get good positions in our key fixtures”, he added.
Kerr added that in addition to the first and last games, it was good not to have the double away trip. “The balance of matches is as good as we could expect, considering the difficulty of the group”, Kerr said.
Ireland will play Switzerland away in September 2004 with further away trips to Israel in March 2005, Faroe Islands in June 2005 and Cyprus in October 2005.
Ireland’s home programme will be completed with ties against Cyprus as the first game of the campaign in September 2004, Faroe Islands in October 2004, and Israel in June 2005.
The meeting was held in Dublin’s Burlington hotel and chaired by FAI President Milo Corcoran. The FAI delegates at the meeting were CEO Fran Rooney, Honorary treasurer John Delaney and under 21 manager Don Givens.
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