The leading critics of the FAI's Eircom Park scheme were claiming vindication last night after a meeting of the association's board of management was told that the true cost of the scheme is around £130 million. However, Bernard O'Byrne remained defiant regarding the scheme's future as he left the Citywest hotel after a six-hour meeting last night, insisting that the figures involved in the new business plan are achievable and that talks on raising the funds would start immediately.

"The costs have gone up," conceded O'Byrne afterwards, "but then we are fortunate in so far as the effect of inflation are felt on the revenue side, too. On the basis of what we have seen today we now know that we would have to borrow £41 million (this figure excludes the estimated £16 million cost of the site) to build Eircom Park and that level of debt is eminently manageable."

A matter of metres away, FAI treasurer Brendan Menton and board of management member John Delaney had a different take on events, with both pointing out that the overall figure now put on completion of the scheme is almost precisely the one floated by them but rejected by O'Byrne at a series of earlier meetings.

"The meeting was informative," remarked Delaney, adding that: "I now feel that the project is undoable on our own. We now have to go and talk to Davy Hickey and to any other potential investors, but the most important thing to come out of today is the acceptance that somebody has to put £50 million into this and we don't have that sort of money."

Menton, meanwhile, remained sceptical about the new business plan in which assumed revenues have been increased by some £15 million, a figure that goes some way towards offsetting the dramatic increase in costs.

"This thing is a goldmine if you believe the figures," he remarked, "but the fact is that every time we talk about how that money is to be raised we become very far removed from the business of soccer and we don't know anything about the business of entertainment."

Central to the improved projections on the revenue side are increased prices in some areas of the advance sales. Ironically, such an increase would presumably not have been possible had IMG sold everything that was at one point claimed. Alarmingly, though, none of the more suspect parts of the earlier business plan have been revised, so the association is still anticipating half a dozen sell-out games, as well as a wide-ranging calendar of other events each year.

On the expenditure side, the estimated cost of construction has gone from £68 million to £109 million while various other outgoings, including professional fees, add roughly another £6 million to the figure.

On the question of the £16 million site in Citywest, O'Byrne continues to favour an approach whereby an outright purchase up front is avoided and the cost is therefore deferred to a point some years down the line. The proposals put to yesterday's meeting on this issue were, however, described as "complicated" and "expensive" by Menton who insists that the figure should be included in the overall estimate.

While most of the presentations were seen as clarifying the various disputes which had existed over the funding of the project, the attitude of IMG's representative was described as being "arrogant" by Delaney who expressed disappointment that no apology had been offered to the board for the way in which it had earlier been misled over advance sales to the corporate sector.

The new business plan continues to anticipate IMG selling 100 per cent of what is available to it in terms of corporate boxes and premium seats and this, in light of what happened before Christmas, was greeted with some scepticism by Delaney and his colleagues.

Indeed, Menton, while conceding that the estimated costs involved are now far more realistic than had previously been the case, continued to express serious reservation about the projected revenues. "The old business plan was a joke, but I still have serious reservations about this one," he said.

Nevertheless, Menton will be part of the four-man team that now goes out and negotiates with potential lenders of the £57 million required to fund the stadium. The others will be O'Byrne, Fergus McArdle from Dundalk and Lawrence St John, a professional adviser.

Davy Hickey - the property firm that is a major player in the whole Citywest project, provided the original site and last week contacted the FAI about becoming involved in the actual development - is likely to be their first port of call.

Others are likely to include the major banks, but even if the process proves difficult, the key figures in the association now do seem broadly agreed on what a project which they all say they would like to build involves.

O'Byrne has also been given additional time, until February 5th, before any potential vote on the project is taken.

For once O'Byrne's description of the meeting as having been "constructive" didn't sound entirely hollow, for while yesterday may not have moved the realisation of the chief executive's dream much closer, there does now appear to be a basis on which to move forward.