THE FAI are about to offer beleaguered Republic boss Mick McCarthy an extension to his present contract as manager of the Irish squad.
The senior committee of the FAI was scheduled to meet at the end of the year, following the present World Cup campaign, to assess McCarthy's position but have now decided to meet on May 16 – six months earlier to end speculation about the manager's position.
It is also hoped that the vote of confidence in McCarthy will boost the Republic's chances of qualification. The Republic are lying fourth in group eight on seven points behind group leaders Romania, Macedonia, and Lithuania.
Officials from the FAI met McCarthy after last week's 1-0 defeat by Romania in Bucharest and agreed to have talks about his contract.
It's generally thought within FAI circles that this will result in the former Irish captain being offered a two- year extension to his present contract and keep him as manager until the end of 1999 and through the European championship qualifying rounds.
Since taking over as Irish boss from Jack Charlton in January last year, McCarthy's team have had a less than encouraging run of results. The straight-talking Yorkshireman's cause wasn't helped by inheriting an aging squad from the successful Charlton years and it took him a full eight games before the Republic recorded their first win under his stewardship against Bolivia in the United States last June.
IIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOIIIIIIIIIII
The Tyrone minor squad could only be assembled for the first time this week because those in charge of two successful college teams refused to release their players for county duty.
As many as 15 players were denied to Tyrone managers Mickey Harte and Fr Gerard McAleer because of the Tyrone vocationals team's involvement in the All-Ireland final and St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon in the Hogan Cup.
Players of the quality of St Pat's stars Brian McGuigan, Richard Thornton and Conal Martin and vocational schools players Kevin O'Brien, Michael Magee and Stephen Donnelly have been off-limits to the Red Hand team.
With Tyrone minors due to play Down on Sunday week at Clones, joint-manager Mickey Harte admitted the success of the two teams had played havoc with his side's championship build-up.
"We certainly have some very good players, but it has been impossible to assess what value the finished product of the Tyrone minor team will be because we have never been able to look at them," said Harte. "It's been difficult, we've just started to prepare as a unit."
Tyrone minor captain Declan McCrossan, Adrian Ball, Joe Campbell and Cormac McAnallen are the only minor players who have not been affected by outside commitments.
IIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOIIIIIIIIIII
Philip Mulryne and Jeff Whitley are set to make their first international starts for Northern Ireland after being named in Bryan Hamilton's squad for this month's friendly match against Thailand in Bangkok.
Manchester United starlet Mulryne has capped two impressive appearances for the north, scoring in his debut in a friendly against Belgium and coming on late in the World Cup defeat to Ukraine last month.
Mulryne, just 19, belongs to an elite list of players to have made an international appearance before claiming a full debut at domestic level.
Manchester City's Jeff Whitley is also in line for his first start in a depleted squad, one that manager Hamilton reckons will make up the bulk of his future ambitions, now that qualification for the World Cup Finals in France is impossible.
Northern Ireland squad: Davison, Carroll, Griffin, McGibbon, Horlock, Lomas, Hill, Gillespie, McCarthy, Lennon, Dowie, Quinn, Mulryne, McMahon, Patterson, Jenkins, Whitley.
