Ireland manager Kerr confesses to childhood leaning to Rangers

"As a young fella, in my madness, the Rangers results were always the first ones I looked for," Kerr said last week. "And yet I loved Celtic."

Kerr was responding to questions about the booing of Rangers players, such as Shota Arveladze of Georgia, and the concern that it will arise again next week when Australia visit Dublin with two Rangers players, Craig Moore and Kevin Muscat, in their squad.

The FAI will make moves this week to curb what they see as racism in the game and UEFA have also expressed their concern.

Following the booing of Arveladze in June, the FAI’s chief executive Fran Rooney contacted the player - who was recovering in hospital after being stretchered off - and apologised for the behaviour of some Irish fans. "That gesture was appreciated by the player and the Georgian FA," an FAI spokesman said.

Kerr is doing his best to make sure it doesn’t happen on Tuesday week. "I hope that stuff fades away, I really do. I’d like there to be none of that. It’s something that pisses me off. My father and mother were from Belfast and they would have socialised in a mixed environment."

Kerr’s pluralist approach extended to his time as manager of St Pat’s, when he brought his team to Ulster to play matches against Portadown and Linfield.

"It wasn’t very popular to do it but I thought it was important to do that. We should have moved on from that stuff by now.

"The players coming here next week are from Australia, and where they choose to play their football is irrelevant, they probably didn’t know of the issues involved. It’s ridiculous. People should grow up, support their own team, get behind their own players and abuse the rest equally.

"We’re supposed to be the best supporters in the world, and if we are let’s accept the opposition irrespective of who’ve they’ve played for. It’s a small section of our crowd, but they need to wise up."