Irish manager Brian Kerr faces a hectic schedule of tournaments in the early part of next year if his under-16 and under-18 teams continue their run of qualification successes of the past two years.

The draws for next season's UEFA competitions at the two levels were made yesterday in Ayia Napa, and the teams, whose performances over the past two seasons have left Ireland ranked number two in Europe, once again face tough competition for places in next summer's finals.

The Irish under-16s will travel to Israel in early February for a three-team qualifying tournament with Israel and Turkey in the hope of making it to next year's finals in the Czech Republic.

The older team, meanwhile, will kick off their campaign at home in October as they play hosts to a four-team competition involving Cyprus, Poland and Russia. The group's top side will go through to a play-off, with the winners of that two-legged tie going to Sweden next July.

Already pencilled in for the two sides, meanwhile, are invitation tournaments in Iceland (next month) for the under-16s and Oporto next spring for the under18s. In January, the under-16s travel to South Africa in January where the European Champions will be one of four sides representing Europe in an eight-nation tournament.

On the world stage, meanwhile, the team competing here should wrap up their place at next April's World Under-20 Championships in Nigeria.