WORLD CUP 2014 IRELAND'S QUALIFIERS:AS WITH their counterparts in the world of finance earlier in the week, the bigwigs of German football held just about all the cards yesterday as they had some of their poorer neighbours round to sort out a timetable for the forthcoming Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. John Delaney, though, appears to have fared a little better than Enda Kenny in terms of avoiding too much pain up front.
Giovanni Trapattoni had said that his preference was to avoid a September meeting with the three times world champions and that much was certainly achieved. Playing the top seeds the following month, it is hoped, will give the Irish the chance to get a win as well as a few weeks of the English club football under their belts before facing up to the challenge of springing an upset on Joachim Loew’s men.
That the first meeting between the two sides is at home, meanwhile, should help to maximise revenues from the game with the association hopeful that they will be able to sell out the Aviva Stadium for such a big occasion and conscious that German broadcasters should be more interested in a match played at a time when the battle to top the group is still, notionally at least, more than a one horse race.
The last time the two sides met in Dublin, at the tail end of the Euro 2008 campaign, the game delivered an estimated profit of close to €10 million for the association thanks to a combination of Croke Park, with its larger capacity, being used, and some healthy competition amongst German TV stations for the rights.
This time the association is hoping for a combined net take of around €6 million although negotiations with broadcasters, which are being conducted directly, are still very much at a preliminary stage.
Overall, there has been an attempt to repeat the broad pattern of fixtures from the campaign just finished with Ireland set to start away from home against opponents ranked below them, take on the top seeds at home in month two, play key games against likely rivals for the runners-up spot in the second September of the campaign before wrapping up with what is seen as a winnable game.
A spokesman said yesterday that it was the first association to settle on its schedule which could be taken as an indication that it was happy with the way things had worked out and Trapattoni declared himself satisfied with the outcome.
“This is a good fixture schedule for our team with a good balance to the matches,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his employers yesterday.
“We finish the campaign at home and start with a single away match against Kazakhstan which was important given the long distances involved. I am also happy with the balance obtained in the double headers and the timing of what we would expect to be some of the key matches in the group.”
Sept 7th, 2012: Kazakhstan v Rep of Ireland.
Oct 12th: Rep of Ireland v Germany.
Oct 16th: Faroe Islands v Rep of Ireland.
Mar 22nd, 2013: Sweden v Rep of Ireland.
Mar 26th: Rep of Ireland v Austria.
Jun 7th: Rep of Ireland v Faroe Islands.
Sept 6th: Rep of Ireland v Sweden.
Sept 10th: Austria v Rep of Ireland.
Oct 11th: Germany v Rep of Ireland.
Oct 15th: Rep of Ireland v Kazakhstan.
