After much deliberation, Fifa finally confirmed this afternoon that next week's World Cup qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and Georgia will take place in the German city of Mainz. Stadion am Bruchweg, the home of Mainz 05, will stage the game after agreement was reached with the club and the German Football Federation.

The game was originally scheduled for the Georgian capital of Tbilisi but the venue was ruled out by Fifa after hostilities broke out between Russia and Georgia.

"After carefully assessing the situation, the Bureau of the Organising Committee for the World Cup today decided that the match between Georgia and Republic of Ireland will take place at a neutral venue due to the current unrest in Georgia," a Fifa statement read this afternoon.

"Although the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) had hoped to host this match at home in Tbilisi, it will now be played in Mainz, Germany on the originally scheduled date of September 6th, with Georgia acting as the host association."

A spokesman for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) told the Irish Timesthat the decision was a "sensible" one and a "great result" from an Irish point of view.

Mainz currently ply their trade in the German second division, while their stadium has a capacity of 20,000. Around 1,000 Irish fans had originally planned to travel to Tbilisi but, despite the late change of venue, the move to Germany could swell this number considerably.

Fifa has yet to confirm the exact capacity of the stadium (a large proportion of the ground is terraced) but the FAI hopes to finalise the ticketing allocation in the coming days.

Though it maintained in a statement this afternoon that the ticketing operation remains an issue for the host nation, the FAI will be pushing for tickets to be made available at the gate. The association argues that the logistics of finalising ticket purchase and delivery are too complicated given the game is just nine days away.

"We have already asked the Georgian Football Federation to inform us of ticketing allocations for this match and expect to receive a response soon," an FAI statement read today.

"In the interim the FAI has sent a team of staff members to Mainz who are in the process of negotiating a ticketing operation for Irish fans at the stadium in the days leading up to the match.

"As soon as this has been finalised and signed off by all parties, we will provide further details for fans on www.fai.ie."