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ESPNsoccernet: Euro 2012 | |
A friendly match between Republic of Ireland and England at the Aviva Stadium in May 2012 is now "highly unlikely", according to FAI chief executive John Delaney.
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• Ireland lining up England friendly
Ireland hoped to arrange a first meeting between the two nations in Dublin since 1995 when their friendly game was abandoned after just 27 minutes because of crowd trouble at Lansdowne Road.
Ahead of their participation at Euro 2012, where the two countries could face one another in the knockout phase, England have scheduled a non-competitive match versus Netherlands on February 29, 2012.
And Delaney has conceded that, in spite of UEFA lifting its restriction on countries facing fellow tournament qualifiers within 30 days of the competition commencing, a game against the English looks to be on the backburner.
"The England game is looking less likely for May," Delaney said in the Telegraph.
"We got the UEFA rule overturned last week, but the fact from the English perspective is that we could play them in the quarter-finals of the Euros, so they're not that keen to do it in May.
"They [England] are keen to come sooner rather than later after that, but it's highly unlikely that would be May."