With Mick McCarthy facing the prospect of having to play three internationals in just eight days at the start of September, the FAI have abandoned plans for a friendly match against Poland on August 18th.
Announcing the decision at the organisation's a.g.m. in Dundalk on Saturday, the association's president, Pat Quigley, said the proposed September 1st date for the home match with Yugoslavia made the schedule "tough enough", and that there appeared to be "little choice other than to shelve the Poland game".
Quigley said he hopes the Yugoslavia fixture will be confirmed this week, as UEFA has the opportunity to ratify the new date over the next couple of days. He also said that he and the association's general secretary, Bernard O'Byrne, plan to meet their opposite numbers from the Yugoslav FA at a FIFA conference in Los Angeles on Thursday when, it is intended, they can agree arrangements for the match.
After last week's news that Ian Evans' Under-21 team had been awarded a 3-0 win in their recent game against Macedonia as a result of the visitors fielding an ineligible player, there was further good news on Saturday too with the announcement that the FAI have received an invitation to compete in the prestigious annual Under-21 tournament in Toulon next summer. It will be the fourth time the Republic have taken part in the event; they last appeared in 1989.
O'Byrne, meanwhile, told delegates at the conference that the Arena stadium project, on which the association has already spent more than £1 million, is on schedule, and an application for planning permission will be submitted in the autumn.
The reaction to the project to date had been overwhelmingly positive, he said: 54 of the 76 corporate boxes, 1,300 of the 5,000 premier seats and 800 of the 3,000 club seats have been sold so far.
When asked after the meeting about the association's stated aim of having the Luas line extended from Tallaght out to the stadium site, Quigley said that, given the relatively low cost of the additional construction involved, the Government should provide the required funding. But he added the FAI might consider putting up the required money if it were not made available from elsewhere.
"The extension would make sense for everybody," he said, "not just us but for the increasing number of people who are living and working in the area where the stadium is going to be located. But if we had to, I suppose, we might have to look at doing something about meeting the cost ourselves," he said.
Earlier, the honorary treasurer, Brendan Menton, reported that the association made a loss of £45,795 for the year to March 31st on a turnover up nearly £600,000 to £6.7 million. It was, he said, "very satisfactory" given that there had been only two competitive internationals in Dublin during the 12-month period.
Just one rule change of note was passed during the conference: delegates endorsed a board of management proposal to prohibit players, managers or other club officials from publicly criticising referees after games. In future, those found to have brought the game into disrepute in this way will be subject to wide-ranging punishments, including, remarkably enough, a life ban from involvement with the game.
