THE Football Association of Ireland has reported a huge imbalance in the demand and supply for tickets to Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign.
Following the closure of the UEFA ticketing portal for this summer’s event in France, the final amount of tickets applied for involving Ireland exceeded 275,000.
That makes Martin O'Neill's team one of the most popular teams heading to the tournament, but it also highlights how much the demand outweighs the allocation of just 26,000, meaning almost a quarter of a million people will be left disappointed.
For Ireland's three Group E games – against Sweden (June 13), Belgium (June 18) and Italy (June 22) – there is a respective total of just 13,000, 6,000 and 7,000 available, making each game massively over-subscribed.
The FAI have confirmed they intend to give priority to loyal supporters with the following statement.
While it is impossible to meet the demand of each ticket request, the FAI will endeavour to reward the most loyal supporters. UEFA will contact each applicant to inform them of the timeline expected for payments to be taken, while all applicants will be informed of their final status by February 29 at the latest.
The FAI has catered for Ireland supporters in the last three away fixtures, Gibraltar, Poland, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. For the Gibraltar game in Faro, Portugal, the FAI was given an allocation of 10,000 tickets but only 2,518 were taken up, while 2,405 were purchased from an allocation of 2,500 for the Poland game in Warsaw.
However, from the first leg of the qualifying play-off against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Zenica, Ireland were over-subscribed after being allocated 650 general admission tickets but 1,403 applications were made for that game.
The application process, which closed on Monday, January 18, was open to all Ireland supporters, however preference will be given to Supporters Clubs, Season Tickets holders, Fan's Direct members, and supporters who have accumulated a significant number of points.
Priority allocation will also be given to supporters from affiliated football leagues and more than 2,000 clubs that fall under their remit, Board and National Council members, Club Ireland members, Jack Charlton Lounge patrons, Sponsors, and players/staff.
