After considerable speculation that the National League would be looking for a new sponsor in the summer it was revealed yesterday that Eircom are on the verge of extending the four-year deal.

Speaking at the official launch of the new league season in Dalymount Park yesterday Cathal Magee, head of the of the company's retail division, spoke enthusiastically about the progress that has been made within the senior game in recent years and said that the company is "really excited by the synergies that we feel Brian (Kerr) can effect between the national team and the Eircom League".

It seemed a surprisingly positive endorsement from a company that had appeared, through last season, to have lost interest in the domestic game and league officials confirmed afterwards that talks aimed at extending Eircom's current backing, probably until the end of the 2005 season, have been in progress for some time.

Eircom's current sponsorship was worth a1.27 million over four years and it is hoped that the new package can be confirmed within the next four to six weeks.

Earlier, new league chairman Brendan Dillon told of the considerable wave of optimism that has accompanied the countdown to the first proper season of summer soccer. He welcomed TV3's decision to repeat their weekly Monday night programme about the league on a Wednesday afternoon and insisted that the clubs, if they worked together, had it within their collective power to "make this a league that we can all be proud of, one which all of our 15 year-olds aspire to playing in".

He appealed for an end to the sort of squabbling between clubs that has generated so much adverse publicity in recent years although yesterday's function was itself the cause of some controversy with representatives of a couple of the league's 22 clubs apparently agreeing to attend the function in Dalymount only after they had been threatened with a10,000 fines for not doing so.

Kerr expressed the hope that those running clubs would be realistic in their expectations and not take the easy option of blaming their managers when things failed to go to plan. "I think that collectively the current crop of managers is as good as any I've seen in my time involved with the league and I hope the chairmen, or whatever fancier titles they have these days, give them a chance to do their jobs and remember that not everybody can be winners.

"During my own time managing," he added, "I would have been someone who thought a lot about the idea of switching to summer football and wondered if it could work. But I came to the conclusion that we needed something radical in terms of how the league was going to be played and when I watched games in July, August and September last year I thought the standard of the football was better and the crowds were better. Hopefully it's a trend that will continue into the years ahead."

Kerr said that he got an idea of how the public's perception of the standard of the league had improved when he went to a game recently and "I was given the names of about seven players from the league that I should be picking for the national team."

He warned that the day when Eircom League players feature prominently in his team remains some way off but insisted that he will ensure that he is aware of the talent available to him here.

"People have said that when I was at St Pat's I used to argue that some of my players should have been in the national team but that's not what I said, I know because I pulled out some programme notes from 1988 recently and the point I was making was that there were players in my first team that weren't even being considered for the under-21 team, they weren't even being watched.

"That won't happen. I don't think there's anyone in Ireland that has a better feeling for the game here. Well," he added with a grin, "I suppose there is Noel O'Reilly."

The Ireland manager may be without Steven Reid for the home games against Albania and Georgia in June after the Millwall midfielder was injured playing for his club at the weekend.

"It looks very much as if Reidy has damaged his medial knee ligaments," said Millwall manager Mark McGhee when asked about the situation. "If that turns out to be the case then he won't play again this season."

Shamrock Rovers, meanwhile, will face Polish opposition in the first round of this summer's InterToto Cup. The Dubliners must wait until the end of the Polish season but it looks like being Legia Warsaw. Rovers will play the first leg away on June 21st or 22nd.