SOCCER UEFA CUP DRAWAS JOHN Delaney rounded on Arkaga in Abbotstown yesterday for their sudden withdrawal from Cork City, across the city St Patrick's Athletic were still weighing up their windfall from Thursday night's win over Elfsborg after they were drawn against Hertha Berlin in the first round proper of the Uefa Cup.

The Dubliners had their collective heart set on a trip to Italy after realising that the way the draw was structured gave them a one-in-five chance of landing AC Milan, but in the end that dream was not realised.

As consolation prizes go, though, Hertha aren't bad.

The Germans come with a sprinkling of international star quality, they play at the city's Olympic Stadium, where the World Cup final was played two years ago, and they hail from a country where the major broadcasters are accustomed to writing sizeable cheques for television rights.

"From our point of view we're very pleased with the draw," said the club's chief executive, Richard Sadlier, yesterday. "Obviously everybody was dreaming of going to the San Siro but it's still a good draw for us, one that should give us a chance of making a few quid, which we haven't had in a while."

On the face of it, Hertha were among the more manageable potential opponents for St Patrick's, who were ranked 80th of 80 in yesterday's draw in Monaco.

Lucien Favre's side finished 10th in the Bundesliga last season but qualified for the Uefa Cup via the Fair Play back door.

They reached this stage of the competition by beating Nistru Otaci of Moldova 8-1 (all the goals coming in the home leg) and IB Ljubljana 3-0, and their website's report that "the little-known" St Patrick's now stood between them and the group stages suggests they are not unduly put out by the draw.

They have, of course, some cause for confidence with German international Arne Friedrich, Serbia's Marko Pantelic and Croatia's Josip Simunic at their disposal.

"We'll be the underdogs," acknowledged Sadlier, "but we were in the last round too and I thought we outplayed Elfsborg over the 180 minutes.

"It'll be a huge challenge but then it's a huge achievement to have gotten this far so we'll enjoy it one way or the other."

For the players the chance to play at such an impressive venue will be a major bonus, but Damien Lynch insists the Dubliners won't travel with surrender on their minds.

"As a player I don't like to think I'm going into anything just for the sake of it," he said.

The dates for the games are still up in the air as negotiations with broadcasters continued. The Uefa games generally are scheduled to be played on September 18th and October 2nd but, with so many German sides in action, it's possible both legs of this tie will be played on the Tuesdays to suit the demands of television.

Delaney, meanwhile, has described Arkaga's role in the financial tribulations of Cork City as "a disgrace", castigating the London-based investment firm for simply walking away from its commitments to the club and its staff.

"What they did is a disgrace," he said. "It's just not right what they did. To leave people down, to leave the club down, the supporters down, the management and players down is just not right. They knew what they were getting into. What they did not do is honour the commitments they gave."

The association's line remains that the troubles being endured by City are an exception and Delaney says that if the FAI hadn't taken over the running of the league, "I would be really worried about the league".

He insists the clubs are moving in the right direction, albeit more slowly than anyone would like.

"I have said many times that it's a marathon, not a sprint. There have been some notable successes this year in what we have done although some clubs have had financial issues.

"Some of them are explainable - the one in Cork is something that was just wrong.

"I see the management accounts and balance sheets of the clubs and I can tell you straight up that they are in better shape collectively than they were 12 months ago and than they were 12 months before that. And they will be better in 12 months' time again."