VERA Pauw's Ireland team will have a delayed start to their World Cup qualifying campaign as a proposed qualifier in Georgia later this month has been postponed due to Covid-19 regulations. The Irish side were due to open their qualifying campaign in Tbilisi on September 17th, but with Georgia on the UK government's "red list" regarding travel and quarantine, British clubs were reluctant to release their players for travel. "The Football Association of Ireland submitted a request to the Georgian Football Federation and UEFA to change the fixture due to the unavailability of UK-based players," said an FAI statement today. "With Georgia placed on a red list by UK Government due to concerns over COVID-19, Ireland Manager Vera Pauw would have been unable to call on several UK-based players for the first qualifying game in Group A. The game will now be played in the June 2022 window with an exact date still to be agreed."

Source: Irish Independent September 08, 2021 16:41 UTC