The Football Association of Ireland appear to have walked themselves into yet another difficult situation, on this occasion apparently taking their eye off the ball in relation to the forthcoming Dundalk versus Drogheda United FAI Cup third-round tie, which is due to be televised live by TG4

The match is scheduled to take place on a revamped Oriel Park in Dundalk this Friday. As of yesterday, however, the game had not received approval from football's governing body. Nor had the pitch received the green light from Fifa, who have yet to inspect the newly installed artificial surface. And, furthermore, extensive reconstruction and renovation works at the ground are still far from being complete.

At a press conference in Oriel Park yesterday Dundalk launched the new surface. The final touches to the pitch, which is the first of its kind in the National League, were being applied as the press conference was in progress.

However, Dundalk FC chief executive Seán Connolly expressed confidence the new surface - while not at its optimum - would be "perfectly playable".

He went on to state he didn't anticipate any difficulties with the FAI passing the pitch as playable, or with Fifa - who are due in Dundalk today to view the pitch.

"It is known that it takes three months for these type of pitches to settle in," said David Fry of Pride Sports and Leisure yesterday, who installed the pitch.

"Once the pitch is tested by Fifa tomorrow and the certificate is handed out then the pitch can be played on. In four to six months' time there won't be any sign of the rubber crumb which is so prominent at the moment."

However, the question is - will the FAI and ultimately Fifa give Friday's FAI Cup tie the thumbs up?

The difficulty for Dundalk FC and the FAI in particular, who have responsibility for the staging of the local derby, is that the match is only four days away. At present the pitch is in a very poor state, a mixture of sand and crumb rubber right through the surface making it highly unstable underfoot.

Drogheda United players were out training on the surface for an hour yesterday and manager Paul Doolin refused to comment about the state of the pitch afterwards.

The Drogheda players were not available for comment either, but it was clear that the club from the south of the county were far from impressed with what they had experienced.

A short time later an official spokesperson for Drogheda United stated that "following the attendance of our management team and players at Oriel Park this morning, we have been in contact with the FAI to express our grave concerns around the staging of Friday night's cup tie at Oriel Park".

Asked if the club would refuse to play on the new pitch, the spokesperson said, "We will be keeping the situation closely under review over the next 24 to 48 hours and will take whatever steps are necessary to safeguard our players."

Questions must now be asked of the FAI. How was this unsatisfactory situation allowed to develop and why was an earlier date not set for all work to be completed satisfactorily?

To a layman looking at the pitch and surroundings yesterday afternoon there seemed no way a match could be played at Oriel Park this Friday night.