Deal means Giggs can face England

England will not attempt to force Wales to play them in a World Cup qualifier while Ryan Giggs is suspended in a bid to strike a deal over the fixtures and avoid a drawing of lots.

Officials from England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the other three countries in the qualifying group for the 2006 World Cup meet in Cardiff today hoping to thrash out a deal. The three home nations have been drawn with Poland, Austria and Azerbaijan in Group 6 and senior officials from all the countries will be at the meeting.

Wales are keen to avoid England in the first two games as Ryan Giggs is suspended - for use of the elbow against Russia in the Euro 2004 play-offs. The England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, is understood to be happy to go along with that in exchange for achieving a good balance of matches.

England will be represented by the FA executive director, David Davies, the new director of development, Trevor Brooking, and Tord Grip, Eriksson's assistant.

A similar attempt by the FA to strike a deal for the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign failed, and when the fixtures were drawn England were left with their final match against Turkey in Istanbul - the worst scenario from both a playing and security viewpoint.

Davies said: "I think we have a better chance this time of reaching an agreement than we have had in the past. I don't think the dates will be a factor and I don't think the security implications will vary between different dates. We will be looking at the sequence of games and try to get a fairly balanced programme with not all the toughest first nor all the easiest.

"In some ways having a draw is as fair as any other way. Last time around we didn't want Turkey v England as the last game but they were fairly insistent. It was quite a lively meeting to say the least, and ended up in the drawing of lots and of course Turkey v England came out of the hat as the last game."

Davies said each association would bring its own private agenda to the table and that the FA had learned the lessons of the past. "When Graham Taylor was England manager, there was a scenario where Norway had played three matches in qualifying for the 1994 World Cup before England had played any," he said. "They had nine points before England had played a single game and that was not brilliant psychologically."

The Wales manager, Mark Hughes, and Eriksson have spoken about the fixtures on the phone and the England coach is understood to have agreed that England will not play Wales until October, missing a double header on 4 and 8 September.

Meanwhile, further discussions are needed between England players and the FA to thrash out "widely acceptable and agreed" criteria for future international selections, according to Davies.

Davies and other FA officials met Gary Neville and David James in Manchester yesterday in an attempt to avoid further disputes after the selection rows surrounding Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith in the autumn.

Ferdinand was omitted from the squads to face Turkey and Denmark because of a missed drugs test, while Smith was called up and then dropped for the Denmark game after the FA learned he had been arrested in relation to a bottle-throwing incident while playing for Leeds.

Davies, who said the initial meeting had been "positive", said: "Everybody in the room was committed to giving England the best chance to be successful in Euro 2004 and beyond,

"All parties agreed to put the aftermath of events in October and November behind us and learn lessons from those events. We agreed that better communication between all of us was very important...

"Discussions are going to continue over the next few weeks and the aim is to create a widely acceptable and agreed policy for all England squad selections in the future."

Brooking yesterday found himself under fire as he embarked on his first major task since being appointed by the FA. The Bolton manager, Sam Allardyce, said: "The FA have appointed someone who isn't qualified to do the technical role... Trevor in a PR role, fantastic; but not in this department and not at grass roots. That's not where he has any qualifications or expertise.

"When I say that he's not qualified, I mean precisely that. He hasn't got the Uefa Pro Licence or the Uefa Pro Licence Diploma, qualifications that every coach, manager and director of football across Europe is required to have. The League Managers' Association is absolutely flabbergasted by this decision and has made representations to the FA about it."