Fans of the Irish Football Team have slammed the FAI for their ticket policy around the Belgium and Switzerland friendlies.
Irish fans who wanted to watch the Belgium and Switzerland games separately were unable to do so without purchasing the two games in a package deal.
The policy of selling both games as one overall deal resulted in a lot of empty seats at the Aviva Stadium for the Belgium game on Saturday, and this was noticed by many Ireland fans watching at home.
The decision from the FAI to sell both games has not gone down well with fans. Many feel that the FAI have created the package deal with no consideration for people living outside of Dublin
"The FAI has no consideration for people who may live far from Dublin or shift workers, of which there are plenty. I'd buy a season ticket if I could, but I can't make every game. Same with the duo packages. Usually, because of shift work, you can only make one. A huge amount [are] in the same boat," said one user. "The package was two fingers to any Irish fan who lives outside Greater Dublin. And FAI has got their answer. An inept, clueless organisation that can't get out of their own way," said another.
Still a lot of empty seats here in the Aviva just over ten minutes before kick-off. The concourse isn’t as packed as usual either.
Evan Ferguson’s name gets by far the biggest cheer among Ireland players from those who have taken their seats so far! #IRLGRE pic.twitter.com/VWNmGkMFL0— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) October 13, 2023
While another commented, "Me and my friend were going to go to the Belgium game but couldn't get up for the Swiss game so didn't bother. There must have been thousands more like us. 15,000 empty seats at the game. Pure greed and an absolute shambles."
On the playing side, O'Shea has claimed that Ireland has no new injury concerns ahead of their game against Switzerland, just "bumps and bruises." Joe Hodge and Andy Moran have joined the senior squad from the Irish U-21's.
"It's pretty much a clean bill of health for everyone," said O’Shea. "A few lads are a little bit leggy, have a few bumps, and have tight muscle areas and will need a little bit of extra attention in training today.
"Andy Moran and Joe Hodge joined in a little bit of training yesterday and were very good, so all in a good spot, really. Like all the lads training today, they’ll have a very good opportunity of making their debuts, but we’ll be assessing that after training.
"And making sure all the bodies, those with a bit of tightness, come through the training, and we’ll see what happens with the selection after that."
Ireland vs. Switzerland will take place on March 26 at 7:45 tomorrow.
