Pat Falls, a Republic of Ireland fan from Belfast, is not the only one disappointed at this week's postponement of the European Championship qualifying match against Yugoslavia.

Pat had already paid out £304 sterling for a Heathrow-Munich-Belgrade scheduled return flight. Add on the cost of the shorter Belfast-London flights and his willingness to support Mick McCarthy and his players becomes very expensive.

Most of the fans travelling from Dublin would probably have booked a charter flight and so saved their money. But how many Irish fans from outside the Republic are now looking at a bill of at least £350 ? Given the reasons for the game's cancellation the issue of money could be seen as being in bad taste. But, as so often happens, when a problem arises it is the fan who comes out worst.