WELSH FA chiefs today insisted they can afford to honour the two years remaining on manager Mark Hughes' lucrative contract.

Fans feared the Football Association of Wales might not have the resources to keep Hughes after missing out on a money-spinning spot in next summer's European Championships in Portugal.

FAW secretary-general David Collins told reporters that Wales' Euro 2004 finals failure - due to their 1-0 play-off second-leg defeat by Russia in Cardiff on Wednesday - would cost the association £3.5million.

Financial problems led to the dismissal of Terry Yorath as national team boss following the failed 1994 World Cup campaign and Wales fans dread a repeat of that move almost a decade ago.

Hughes, linked with the vacant managerial post at Tottenham Hotspur and the assistant's job to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, earns £250,000 a year as Wales boss Mark Evans, head of the FAW's International Affairs, reassured the Welsh faithful: "The Football Association of Wales is not suffering financially despite our Euro 2004 failing. "We can afford to pay Mark Hughes' salary, that is not a problem. His wage is what we believe it costs for a top-class manager.

"We haven't drawn-up our budget on what we hope comes in, we have drawn-up a budget on what we know will come in.

"And obviously 72,000 full houses in the Millennium Stadium for five games in a row has helped put us on a better financial footing.

"We did not budget to win a European Championship finals place. The UEFA prize-money of £3.3 million and the other commercial spin-offs for reaching Euro 2004 would have been a welcome bonus and taken us on to the next level.

"Now, however, we will have to start again from the same base for the World Cup 2006 campaign which begins next autumn."

Collins and the FAW are desperate to keep their man and Hughes himself insists he 'would like to stay on' but he'll talk with his bosses when the dust has settled following their play-off heartache.

Welsh skipper Gary Speed, the main front-runner for Hughes' job if the ex-Manchester United star is lured to a Premiership club, opened-up: "We all want Mark to lead us into the next World Cup qualifiers.

"If he went now it would be like after the failed World Cup 1994 campaign and we would be back to square one. We have to keep on improving."

And Hughes' assistant Eric Harrison predicted: "I think Mark will stay."