THE FAI will ask Liechtenstein to bring forward the World Cup qualifying game against The Republic of Ireland on June 7th in Dublin by at least a week.

It follows the bitter experience of the qualifying programme for the 1996 European Championship when Ireland were effectively undone by a disastrous programme in June 1995.

A scoreless draw in Liechtenstein was followed by a 3-1 home defeat against Austria. Jack Charlton, the manager at the time, claimed it was folly to play such important games long after the club season had finished in Britain.

Now, acting on a request from Mick McCarthy, the FAI is to lobby the Liechtenstein federation with a view to having the World Cup game played in mid May.

"It doesn't make sense to keep players in training for an extra three weeks at a stage when they are physically and mentally drained by a long season," said an FAI spokesperson. "At this point no formal approaches have been made to Liechtenstein with a view to rearranging the fixture but we believe that they will be sympathetic to our request."

Ireland play two World Cup games in April, against FYR Macedonia at Skopje on April 2nd and Romania at Bucharest four weeks later. Then there is a gap of almost six weeks to the Liechtenstein fixture and that is a prospect which clearly does not appeal to the management team.

Packie Bonner's testimonial game, in which an Ireland selection will play Celtic, is set for Lansdowne Road on Sunday May 18th. But this arrangement is conditional on Celtic not being involved in the Scottish Cup final.

In the event of Liechtenstein refusing to co operate, Ireland may take up an offer from Norway to play in Dublin in late May, a fixture which would have the benefit of keeping players focused in the approach to the World Cup game.

However, that is perceived as the less attractive of the two options. More popular by far is the prospect of finishing the competitive season in the third week in May, thereby guaranteeing a break of three months to the meeting with Lithuania at Lansdowne Road on August 20th.

Trevor Francis, Birmingham City's manager, said yesterday that Republic of Ireland defender Gary Breen is expected to be available again for selection before the end of the month. Breen broke bones in his hand following a recent mugging incident.

Francis stopped short of spelling out his plans for the player. There was a time when Breen, signed from Peterborough United as a replacement for Liam Daish last season, was an indispensable part of the manager's plans to lift the club into a challenging position for promotion. Now, he may not be so sure.

It is not without significance that in the two weeks immediately before he was set upon by thugs, Breen was left out of the starting line up at St Andrews. Instead Francis chose to go with the experience of Steve Bruce and Gary Ablett in central defence in the big push for a top three placing in Division One.

Nor has Francis been disappointed by the response as Birmingham, notoriously brittle at the back in other years, tightened their defence to the point where they have not conceded a goal in their last four games.

Francis dismisses suggestions that he is disappointed with Breen's recent form, pointing instead to the player's remarkable rate of development over the last 12 months.

Yet, the signs are that when Breen eventually returns to first team duty with Birmingham, it will be on the right flank of the defence. And that could have implications for his chances of keeping his place in the Republic of Ireland team as all nine of Breen's international appearances were in the middle of the back three.