IRISH TO MOVE IN AT OT?

The Republic of Ireland have earmarked Anfield as a possible venue for their home World Cup qualifying matches.

The suggestion to play in Britain has come about because of continued delays in the building of a stadium in Dublin to replace Lansdowne Road, which has only 22,000 permanent seats.

FIFA, the game's world governing body, gave the Football Association of Ireland permission to install 12,000 temporary seats on the terracing for major matches but have indicated that such an arrangement will shortly have to cease for safety reasons, leaving the stadium woefully short of capacity.

As well as Liverpool's Anfield, the Irish are understood to have made tentative approaches to Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, Celtic Park and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

These preliminary inquiries are seen in some quarters as political manoeuvres designed at bringing a positive reaction from the Irish government, who recently shelved plans to modernise Lansdowne Road.

A meeting of the six nations in Ireland's qualifying group is scheduled to take place in Dublin early next month when venues as well as dates will be on the agenda.

An FAI spokesman said the Republic did not want to play their home matches in Britain but admitted it was an option if the situation in Dublin was not resolved.