Jack Charlton slapped a newspaper against his thigh, almost certainly The Daily Mirror for he loved its crossword puzzle, and whistled a merry tune as he marched down the hotel corridor.
It was December 12, 1995 – 29 years ago this week – and the Irish team, and press corps too, were billeted in swanky Mottram Hall, Cheshire.
The next night, at Anfield, Ireland were playing the Netherlands, or the Dutch as Jack always called them, in a play-off to reach the European Championship finals, to be held in England the following summer.
Charlton was desperate to be there, to complete 10 years as Ireland manager back on ‘home turf’, as it were. It didn’t happen, of course, as the Dutch over-ran a weakened Irish XI. Getting back to the night before. Charlton’s festive cheer followed the qualifying draw for the 1998 World Cup.
As second seeds, Ireland struck it lucky with the lowest first seed (Romania) and the second lowest third seed (Lithuania).
Along with Iceland, Macedonia and Liechtenstein, Ireland were in a marshmallow group which Charlton felt was eminently winnable.
In his mind, he was already looking beyond Euro ’96 towards France ’98, and leading Ireland to the World Cup for the third finals in a row.
Only Ireland never made it to France, while Charlton didn’t last another week, after the FAI officers stood their ground and called time on his decorated reign.
Charlton took Ireland to three tournament finals, two of them World Cups. Of seven World Cup qualifications since the 1994 finals, Ireland have been successful once, under Mick McCarthy, who steered the team to the 2002 tournament, knocking out the Dutch on the way, by way of retribution.
The pathway towards the 2026 World Cup finals in north America will become that bit clearer on Friday when UEFA oversee a qualification draw that has more ifs, buts and maybes than before.
Such is UEFA’s persistence with trying to flog life into the Nations League, the knock-on effects for the World Cup draw are immense.
No less than 24 of the 54 teams in the draw are involved in Nations League games in March, eight of them in the League A quarter-finals and a further 16, including the Republic of Ireland, in the League A/B and League B/C promotion-relegation play-offs.
The unnecessary Nations League spillover has led to splitting the record 12 World Cup qualifying groups into batches of five and four teams.
Ireland will be among the latter, which means manager Heimir Hallgrímsson will again oversee six games crammed into three windows between September and November next.
In contrast, the 1998 campaign embraced 10 qualifying games which ran from the end of August 1996 until October 1997, before Ireland suffered a play-off defeat against Belgium in November 1997.
Ireland were ranked 15th in Europe for the ’98 draw, compared to 27th today, which sees them among the third tier of seeded teams.
Getting Spain and Turkey on Friday would be a draw from hell.
A group involving Austria and the Czech Republic would offer encouragement – everyone will want the former, the weakest of the top seeds.
Much has been made of the expanded 2026 World Cup finals, with its bulging 48 teams and extra places, 16, for European nations.
Only, the latter is a myth. In 1998, when there were 32 finalists, no less than 15 slots were set aside for European teams, one of which was reserved for hosts France.
From having 47 per cent of finalists in 1998, UEFA today must do with 33 per cent, which reflects the European body’s lack of clout within the FIFA hierarchy.
That five of the last seven World Cup finals have been won by European nations, cuts no ice with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino who will today oversee the controversial awarding of the 2034 World Cup finals to Saudi Arabia, the sole bidders.
For the World Cup to return to the Gulf so soon after the 2022 finals in Qatar, and be played again in winter, is a reminder of who holds true power in world football these days – those with the most money.
Hopefully, there will be a favourable break of the ball for Ireland in Friday’s draw, along the lines of this week in 1995, only I don’t give much for the chances of Hallgrimsson and his players of bridging a 24-year gap between finals.
I wonder what Charlton would make of a 48-team World Cup? He’d probably say something along the lines of ‘bugger that’ and go back to his crossword.