RTE has still not secured the rights to Ireland's crucial second-leg World Cup qualifier with France.

With less than a fortnight to kick-off in Paris, the state broadcaster is still dithering over the coverage of the match.

Negotiations have now hit a stumbling block and fans are face the real prospect of the Paris leg of the World Cup qualifier not being shown on terrestrial television.

"RTE are currently in negotiations with the sport's rights agency on behalf of the French Football Federation" a spokeswoman said on behalf of RTE.

"We're not commenting on the subject yet as we have not concluded our negotiations."

The stance being taken by the French football authorities may be as a result of how the FAI handled the allocation of TV rights for the Croke Park leg.

Astonishing

The FAI sold the rights to the first leg on November 14 to an independent French TV station for €4m, instead of the national broadcaster TF1.

The situation is similar to the one which faced Irish fans when Ireland played Turkey in the play-offs for Euro 2000. RTE was unable to broadcast that game after the Turkish FA looked for an astonishing €3m.

The FAI has said that "this is a matter for the French Football Federation and the TV stations".

This latest debacle comes on the back of the French deliberately setting out to limit the number of tickets available to Irish fans for the second leg.

That controversy was sparked by comments from French coach Raymond Domenech. In an interview with French television, Domenech revealed that he wanted the French fans to limit the number of tickets available to the Irish fans: "Ireland should not have more places than they are allocated."

Swamped

He said if the Irish were prevented from getting extra tickets, "it would be the first victory".

The French Football Federation is trying to avoid a repeat of the huge Irish crowds that swamped the Stade de France in 2004, when the sides last met on French soil.

The French Football Federation tried to limit the number of tickets available by only allocating the FAI the mandatory amount of tickets. This amounted to 10pc of the tickets for the game or 8,500 seats.

They also curtailed the availability of tickets by declining from selling tickets online or over the phone.

The fact that tickets were going to be kept from Irish fans had always been a worry for the FAI chief executive John Delaney because, he said: "I think they (the French football authorities) have a fear of creating a positive atmosphere from the Irish players' perspectives."

hnews@herald.ie

- Cormac Byrne