Gaelic Games: Speculation that Croke Park wouldn't be able to stage next year's World Cup qualifier against France is wide of the mark.

Rule 42, the Official Guide's provision that is used to prevent soccer and rugby being played on GAA grounds, remains the sole obstacle to other sports taking place at the venue.

The GAA annual congress in Killarney this April is expected to debate the issue but current indications are that any motions to delete or modify Rule 42 are unlikely to attract the requisite two-thirds majority.

But were the rule to be changed either this or next year, there seems little doubt that Croke Park could handle the fixture. When the draw for Ireland's group was made on Tuesday there were suggestions that the date of the home soccer match against France made the GAA venue a possibility given that there would be two annual congresses before September 7th 2005.

That date, however, falls between the second All-Ireland football semi-final and the All-Ireland hurling final and initial reaction assumed that this would create difficulties. Yet that is not the experience of the Croke Park authorities, who have frequently arranged major fixtures on the Saturday and Sunday of championship weekends.

Last summer the ground was turned around between the first Leinster football semi-final between Kildare and Meath on a Saturday evening and Laois-Dublin's semi-final the following afternoon. Admittedly neither fixture was operating anywhere near capacity but the work involved in cleaning up the ground and its environs isn't proportionally reduced.

In the words of one Croke Park source: "There'd be no internal management issues holding two events within four days of each other." A more striking example is the five-day turnaround between the closing ceremony of last year's Special Olympics on the night of 28th June - complete with capacity crowd and full stadium usage throughout the concourses, and the staging of one of Croke Park's biggest events last summer, the football qualifier double bill featuring Dublin-Armagh and Donegal-Tipperary, which drew 63,000 to Croke Park on Saturday 5th July.

This gave the GAA only 24 hours more than the four days between the Ireland-France soccer match and next year's hurling final to raise a pitch cover and dismantle a huge stage. The new pitch has proved very resilient, with matches on successive days causing no trouble for the playing surface. Furthermore the grass would be cut far more tightly for the hurling final so the pitch would have the added protection of longer growth during any soccer match.

The logistical argument against the possibility of the France match being played at Croke Park was always less convincing than one based on the venue's lack of floodlights.

Without lighting the match would, given the time of year, have to be played in the afternoon and such timing would have major consequences for television revenues, as French broadcasters would not pay premium rates for an afternoon slot on a weekday. Floodlights would be necessary for any prime-time scheduling.

The feeling in Croke Park is that whereas there are no immediate plans to apply for the planning permission necessary to erect lights, the day is fast approaching when the GAA will want to install the facility if only for their own purposes.

Only last week, association president Seán Kelly launched the 2004 National Football League with a strong message of support for floodlit fixtures.

Although he was primarily referring to smaller venues it's no secret that the GAA would like to capitalise on the stadium atmosphere created by evening matches, particularly as experienced in the International Rules series in Australia.

The main obstacle to the installation of lights has always been the opposition of local residents. While the planning process in respect of the stadium redevelopment was under way, there was sensitivity to the annoyance the issue could cause. But sooner or later an application will be made.

Inevitably, there will be objections and the matter is likely to go the distance in terms of the planning process. But Croke Park is confident that any "light spill" from the ground would be minimised by modern technology (for instance the obsolescence of pylon lighting).

In addition, the Clonliffe end of the ground, which is closest to residential housing, will be far more enclosed when the Northern End redevelopment is complete. Accordingly, there is confidence within Croke Park that an application for floodlighting could be processed in a few months, even allowing for appeals.

That process has yet to start but assuming that official confidence is borne out, the only barrier to an Ireland-France soccer match going ahead in Croke Park will still be the familiar, and so far insurmountable, Rule 42.