The possibility of England playing in Dublin for the first time since the infamous riot at Lansdowne Road in 1995 came more sharply into focus yesterday after UEFA had come down in favour of an open draw for the Euro 2000 play-offs.

A meeting of the championship's organising committee yesterday morning voted against a proposal to seed teams ahead of today's draw for the four ties. The draw will be made at Aachen at 11.00 am (Irish time).

This decision was later endorsed by UEFA's executive committee of which Ireland's Des Casey is a member.

"I think this is a fair and proper decision," said Ireland manager Mick McCarthy. "All eight teams have reached the play-offs on merit - it should now be a level playing field for everybody."

There is no provision in the regulations for segregating teams at this stage of the competition and the feeling among the majority of committee members was that the draw should be unrestricted with sporting rather than political criteria applying.

That pleased the FAI and Irish management team who suspected that England and to a lesser extent Scotland and Denmark would use political clout to avoid having to play the Ukraine or Turkey who, for different reasons, are regarded as the loose cannon among the eight teams involved.

The Garda authorities and local resident groups in Dublin may be less enamoured with the move and are certain to oppose any plan to host a game against England on the grounds that it poses an unacceptable risk to law and order in the city.

After rioting England fans had provoked some of the most notorious scenes ever witnessed at a sporting event in this country, the meeting of the countries at Lansdowne Road in February 1995 was abandoned within 27 minutes of the kick-off.

Garda authorities said later that they were appalled at the level of violence inside the stadium. Indicating that they believed the trouble had been orchestrated by members of militant groups in Britain, they said at the time that they would oppose any move to host another game against England in the "foreseeable future".

In the event of the two teams being drawn together, the FAI would almost certainly seek the help of the FA authorities in London to devise a plan whereby no match tickets would be sold to England supporters for the Dublin leg of the tie.

On the debit side, Ireland supporters would be debarred from purchasing tickets for the game in England, although given the number of expatriate Irish in Britain it is difficult to see how the exclusion clause could be implemented fully in this instance.

UEFA would have no problems in ratifying this kind of deal. Faced with potentially more serious problems for the recent Euro 2000 qualifying games between Yugoslavia and Croatia, they approved a plan limiting the number of visiting supporters for the two games to just 200.

Whether this arrangement would appease the fears of the Garda authorities remains to be seen if, as some football people hope, the draw ordains that Ireland and England should meet in a competitive fixture for the first time since the 1-1 European championship draw at Wembley in March 1991.

The eight countries involved in the play-offs are England, Scotland, Denmark, Turkey, Slovenia, Ukraine, Turkey and the Republic of Ireland. First leg games are scheduled for November 13th with the return fixtures just four days later.

Before yesterday's sitting of the Euro 2000 organising committee, a minute's silence was observed as a mark of respect to the late Dr Tony O'Neill, a member of the committee for the last six years.

Gidius Braun of Germany, chairman of the committee and a vice-president of UEFA, paid a glowing tribute to Dr O'Neill, describing him as a man of integrity and imagination who had made a significant contribution to European football in recent years.