ZURICH, Switzerland: Georgia's World Cup qualifier against Ireland will be played in the German city of Mainz, FIFA said Thursday.

It is the third scheduled venue for the September 6 match, which had to be moved from Tbilisi because the Georgian capital was judged unsafe during the country's territorial dispute with Russia.

Georgian football federation officials planned to use Karlsruher SC's Wildparkstadion but the German Bundesliga club said Wednesday it could not host the game at such short notice. Georgia then reached an agreement Thursday with German second division club FSV Mainz to use its 20,000 capacity Bruchweg stadium.

The match against Ireland will be the first for both nations in Group 8 of European qualifying for the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

Georgia travels to play world champion Italy in Udine on September 10, and is scheduled to return to Tbilisi in October for qualifiers against Cyprus and Bulgaria.

FIFA will decide at a later date if the capital is safe to stage international games. 

Source : AP