Gavin Cooney

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND manager Stephen Kenny has expressed his frustration at the process by which the fixtures for his side’s Euro 2024 qualifiers have been determined. 

Uefa confirmed the fixtures for the qualifiers on Sunday evening, having conducted the draw in Frankfurt at noon. An hour after publishing the fixtures, Uefa advised fans to disregard them owing to an issue elsewhere in the calendar. Uefa then confirmed Ireland’s fixtures this morning, with no change from the initial schedule. 

Kenny’s issue is not this bungling but the fact his side do not play on the final matchday, claiming that puts Ireland at a disadvantage given those playing may know the results they need to qualify for the competition in advance of the match.

This is a result of being placed in a five-team group: Ireland’s other ‘bye’ week is in the very first round of fixtures. 

“I am very, very disappointed with the lack of transparency around the last fixture”, said Kenny in an interview with Joe Molloy on Monday’s Off the Ball.

Ireland will begin their campaign at home to France in March, followed by an away game to Greece in June before a home clash with Gibraltar days later. The September window is daunting, with a trip to France followed by the home game with Netherlands, all in the space of four days. Ireland then host Greece and travel away to Gibraltar in October, and conclude the group away to the Netherlands in November. 

Kenny said there are “pluses and minuses” to the scheduling, though he was at pains to point out the importance of preparation for those games, stressing the days lead-in to the France game. Kenny also said his side will need to go for warm-weather training to acclimatise for the challenge of facing Greece away in June. 

Ireland are contractually obliged by Uefa to play two friendly games in 2023, though Kenny’s comments would appear to suggest he would prefer that these friendly games don’t take place immediately prior to the games against France and Greece.

“There are pluses and minuses in the scheduling of the games”, said Kenny. “The pluses are that we have a lead into the game against France, with just one game in that window. That will give us time to prepare for that game, to make sure we are ready for a major challenge. We will need that preparation time and that will be important, that is critical for us. There are no games that are easy, we saw in the previous Euro campaign against Gibraltar where it was 1-0 [result away from home] and 1-0 late on [in a 2-0 home win] so there are no formalities, and you have to earn the right to win every game. But we are pleased that Gibraltar are second in those windows. 

“The minuses: firstly, I am very, very disappointed with the lack of transparency around the last fixture. For example, we don’t play on the last day. So Holland play Gibraltar and France play Greece, and if France need a draw against Greece [to qualify] they will know that. Or if Holland know they need to beat Gibraltar by four goals to go through, they will know that, and we have no fixture. We are not happy about that at all. The draw was made yesterday, and you don’t find out the fixtures until later in the evening after the consultation with the TV stations. If there is going to be an odd one out [on group's final fixtures] then surely it has to be the lowest seed. There is a lack of clarity around that decision-making process, and how it’s made. It’s not equitable, and not a fair process.”

The fixtures were once thrashed out in negotiations between the associations involved – Kenny himself was involved in the bargaining around the fixture list for the U21 qualifiers when he was manager – but that process has ended for senior games.

“I’ve sought clarification [on the process] but there has been very little feedback: that that is how it is and you have to accept it”, said Kenny. “Regarding the June window, Greece away, we wouldn’t have wanted that in June. We’ve seen fires ravaging Greece last summer, temperatures are really high in summer. When we saw Greece we thought we would take them in any other window other than in June. We didn’t want that, and that is something we will have to prepare for and acclimatise to. 

“Our preparations in June for that are going to be very important. The two-game window in September, France and Holland back-to-back, is difficult. But that is the nature of it. The fixtures are there and we have to prepare accordingly. There are eight fixtures and we have to treat each of them with equal respect. The June window is interesting for us, we learned a lot from this June window.

“We had one defeat in 12  games going into the last June window and probably put in our weakest performance in some time in Armenia. There are six weeks this year between the end of the Championship and our game against Greece, all of our players play in the Championship bar a couple.

“We had that problem last year, there were six weeks between [the Armenia game] and the end of League One and five weeks between it and the Championship. The problem with the last window was that it was a 20-day window, as we had four matches.

“We will have to go away and prepare for that game against Greece, we will have to go away and acclimatise in similar conditions, to prepare for that game. We will have to have a two-week lead-in for that game, at least.”