FAI general secretary Brendan Menton hopes that talks to keep Mick McCarthy in charge of the Irish team for the 2004 European Championship campaign will take place early next month.

Following Thursday's game in Tehran, Menton said: "Mick has indicated in recent weeks that he wants to stay and the understanding we had was that we would get the qualification campaign out of the way before we tried to sort anything out.

"That's done now," he added, "and given the fact that we're all going to Korea for the draw the week after next, the most logical thing is probably for us to discuss the situation when we come back. My gut feeling, though, is that once we get started it won't take us long to sort a new deal out."

McCarthy again confirmed that he wished to stay on but, while he didn't rule out talks before Christmas, he said, "I'm, not pushing anyone on this, I'll take it handy and once a few other things are out of the way I'm sure we'll all get a chance to sit down and talk things through."

Menton is bullish about the future for the present panel, pointing to the fact that "seven of the side that played against Holland are under 25, so everything points to this being the first of a run of qualifications, especially when you consider that we should be top seeds for the qualifying stages of Portugal."

Asked about the financial implications for the association of qualification for next summer's finals, Menton restated his previous estimate that the FAI should net something in excess of £5 million from the journey to the Far East.