It may have taken 10 rather than the expected two and a half hours but as they filed out of yesterday's World Cup fixtures meeting at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin the FAI's delegation had the look of men who reckoned they had done a good day's work for the association.

Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr, who spent the day in a room adjoining the venue for the six-way negotiations, left a fairly happy man, observing: "I knew we'd have to concede a few things but we got a lot more than we had to concede. It's still going to be a tough programme but I think the negotiating team did a good job for us."

Kerr had hoped to finish the campaign with a home game against France, which is something he didn't get, but he expressed considerable satisfaction his side will start and finish the qualification competition in Dublin, take on their two strongest opponents at home late in the programme of matches and have avoided the prospect of having to either play more than one away game during any of the available double dates or travel to Israel or Cyprus during the hottest months of the year.

"It was a difficult process because Israel fought their corner very strongly, the Swiss were hard to move and the French are such a power in the game that maybe they don't expect to have to listen to others, but we stuck it out for a lot of what we wanted and I'm certainly reasonably pleased with the outcome," Kerr said.

The location in the schedule of the home tie against the European champions caused some minor excitement when it was revealed as, in theory at least, it raises the possibility the game might yet be staged at Croke Park on September 7th of next year. FAI officials insisted this "had simply not been a factor", in their considerations.

Though the motion aimed at allowing other sports to be played at Croke Park is expected to fall short of the two thirds majority required to be adopted at this year's GAA Congress the matter may well be voted upon again before the match comes around.Even if the required rule change was passed in April 2005, however, and the timing of the game - just after the second All-Ireland football semi-final and a matter of days before the All Ireland hurling final - could be overlooked, the issue of floodlighting would probably still rule out use of the venue.

Without floodlights the game, which is scheduled for a Wednesday, would have to be played either in the afternoon or very early evening, something that could have a severe impact on the size of the crowd and the value of the French television rights.

If the meeting failed to yield the makings of a fairytale for the FAI, however, the negotiating team of FAI chief executive Fran Rooney, FAI treasurer John Delaney and under-21 manager Don Givens, who departed to catch a flight home after taking part in the first seven hours of talks which were chaired by Milo Corcoran, seemed to have scored some notable victories.

The visiting delegations left complaining of Irish intransigence and Rooney admitted afterwards the hosts were aware of their growing unpopularity. "But," he said, "we knew what we wanted and we were prepared to be patient."

So too, though, were the visiting officials and several brought specific restrictions to the table. The Israelis were unable to play on the last qualifying date, October 12th of next year, because it is Yom Kippur, the French were unavailable on either of the June dates in 2005 because of the Confederations Cup, and the Faroe Islands needed to avoid home matches during November or March because of their climate.

Delaney said afterwards that when the delegations were initially asked to suggest a preferred programme of games, "it was just all over the shop", and little progress was made in the hours that followed. After some four hours, though, a side-meeting between the Irish, Swiss and French representatives ended in broad agreement and from that point on there appears to have been growing pressure on the remaining three nations to give ground. Cyprus, the most flexible delegates, and then the Faroe Islands, finally did.

The Israelis, however, continued to stand their ground. After failing to secure a home game with Ireland in the summer months they then resisted a suggestion that they finish the campaign in Paris, where their win in 1993 went a long way towards costing France a place at the 1994 World Cup finals. It is claimed it was only at this point Ithak Menachem mentioned Yom Kippur as a factor in relation to the senior team although it had been clear from early on that the under-21s would not be able to play on the evening of October 11th.

Finally, having already been disadvantaged by their need to finish their programme ahead of their rivals, Menachem and his delegation opposed a schedule that required them to wrap up their campaign with two games against the Faroe Islands. This, however, is what they eventually had to accept.

Rooney hailed the final list of fixtures as a significant achievement, observing, "Starting at home was a major objective and we will play Cyprus here in September, finishing at home was another and we will play the Swiss. Getting the Swiss and French here late on was something we set out to achieve. and we've done that while avoiding any back-to-back away games. We're not under any illusions that ultimately it all comes down to the performances on the pitch. We have to win the matches, but we wanted to avoid an unfavourable schedule and we think we've done that."