B fixture gets stung - January 11, 2000
The Republic of Ireland, without a senior B fixture since February 1999, have turned down an offer from Germany to play this June!
FAI international committee Michael Hyland says the invitation was declined because the senior squad will be involved in World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Estonia that month.
It's the second announcement in two days that chances to play international games have gone a begging. Yesterday it was confirmed that an u20 game against France, scheduled for later this month, had been scrapped because of an internal FAI mix-up over budgets.
Hyland said: "Germany were very keen to play us at B level in June but we had to say no because of the World Cup games.
"It's a pity - but it would have been impossible to assemble a strong enough squad to take on the Germans."
Rubbish! Ireland currently has 34 players realistically vying for 22 senior squad places - without counting senior internationals like Gareth Farrelly, Alan Moore and Dave Savage who have dropped out of the picture.
Neither does that number include up-and-coming stars like Grimsby's Daryl Clare and Luton's Liam George - nor top young National League stars like Richie Foran, Glen Crowe, Richie Baker and Kevin McHugh!
How about this for a team: Nick Colgan (Hibernian); Jeff Kenna (Blackburn), Curtis Fleming (Middlesbro), Paul Butler (Sunderland), Clive Clarke (Stoke), Daryl Clare (Grimsby), Barry Quinn (Coventry), Gareth Farrelly (Bolton), Richie Baker (Shelbourne), Dominic Foley (Watford), Richie Foran (Shelbourne) - with the likes of Alan Mahon (Sporting Lisbon), Alan Kernaghan (St. Johnstone), Graham Kavanagh (Stoke) and Liam George (Luton) on the bench?
The last time we played a B fixture was against the National League in February 1999 and the previous one was a year earlier against Northern Ireland - hardly glamour events. But Hyland says the match against Germany could happen later in the year.
"Hopefully it will go ahead at some stage," he said.