There is a sense of excitement about tonight’s game between the Republic of Ireland and Bulgaria.

It’s the dawn of a new era with Stephen Kenny taking charge for the first time and the promise at least of a more attractive style of football that we have all grown up with.

Most would take results over style but having sat through stand out games at the Aviva against Iceland and Denmark in recent years, a little bit of both would be nice.

On the field, this is important in that it gives us a chance to get back up to League A, where we could face attractive opposition next time round and stand a better chance of a back door qualification for World Cup ’22. It’s less of an opportunity than was the case for Euro 2022 with only the top three teams that don’t qualify by right from qualifying, finding a path still open to them.

Nevertheless, there is more at stake than was the case in those series of friendly games against Oman.

We have a chance as well. Yes we have only one draw and three defeats to our name away to Bulgaria but we have a 4-0 home record to take positives from, and Bulgaria has lost four of their last five games at home.

More important than the three points though is the performance and the mood it generates among fans.

Three were on the point of renewal in 2019 when the decision to exit, against a background of financial and governance issues was announced.

The deal was due to have ended in July but was then extended to the end of December in the midst of the pandemic.

The Commercial team at the Association, led by Mark Russell, will be hoping for a positive outcome to serve as a new background for discussions with brands.

Nissan, Aviva, Elverys Intersport, Carlsberg and SSE Airtricity from among the Sport for Business membership remain ‘onside’ with the FAI but it is the primary deal that will be most important in terms of future financial wellbeing and it is mood as well as the deal that will colour the business world’s desire to be associated.

There are so many strengths to the FAI in terms of its youth, urban and international appeal. It just needs to be exciting for people to rally around once more.

Is there a sponsor in Ireland that would not have wanted to be in Opel’s shoes back in 1990? Those days can return. The pointer towards whether they will in the short to medium term come into focus tonight.

The game in Sofia will be shown live on Sky Sports with a 7-45 kick-off and there will be live commentary on RTÉ Radio as part of the Game On programme.

<em>UPDATED at 1230 with correction on the timing of Three’s exit.</em>