DUFF WILL MISS TRIP TO MAINZ; CHAMPIONS HEADING FOR PARKHEAD.

Byline: By PAUL O'HEHIR

DAMIEN Duff won't be on the plane to Germany next week when Ireland travel to play Georgia in Mainz.

Fifa finally confirmed yesterday that the World Cup qualifier will go ahead in the German city not far from Frankfurt.

And Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni last night expressed his delight that the saga had drawn to a close - but now has fresh concerns of his own.

Duff suffered a knee injury in Bolton's Premier League win over Bolton last weekend.

Initially the injury was not thought to be too serious and club officials hoped he could feature in some way against Arsenal this weekend.

But now the wing wizard has been ruled out for at least three weeks and Trapattoni was forced to leave him out of his travelling squad last night.

"It is a shame that we have lost Damien for the two opening qualifiers," said the Italian. "He started very well and he is a very important player in the Irish squad.

"But I am happy that FIFA and the Georgian Football Federation have made a decision to play the game against Georgia in a neutral venue.

"We understand that it was a difficult decision to make but feel it was the correct one given the need to prioritise the safety of the players and fans."

Georgian officials were fretting on Wednesday night when their chosen neutral venue of Karlsruhe was ruled a non-runner.

But a switch to the Bruchweg Stadion in Mainz materialised yesterday, with the Georgian Football Federation acting as host association.

"The Georgian FA nominated an alternative venue which did not become available," said FAI chief John Delaney.

"I think FIFA applied a lot of pressure particularly over the last 24 hours to clarify for the position, I'm thankful and grateful for that albeit it has taken a long time.

"We applied as much pressure on FIFA, UEFA and the Georgian Football Federation to get clarification as quickly as possible.

"It certainly dragged on longer than we would have liked and the fans who follow us all over the world deserved to have clarity on this issue before they did."

Georgian officials have now initiated plans to host next weekend's game although they are disappointed the game is not going ahead in their capital Tbilisi.

The Bruchweg Stadion has a capacity of 22,000 but when seating for the qualifying game is factored in the match-day capacity is reduced to a little over 10,000.

The Georgian association will be in charge of the ticketing allocation but FAI officials are negotiating a ticketing operation to facilitate Irish supporters at the stadium in the days leading up to the game.

"As soon as this has been finalised and signed off by all parties, we will provide further details for fans," said an FAI spokesman.

CAPTION(S):

INJURED: Damien Duff; OFF TO GERMANY Boss Giovanni Trapattoni