FAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE John Delaney has admitted his organisation made mistakes in relation to the ticketing for the upcoming Euro 2016 qualifier in Glasgow, but insists that the Scottish FA deserve criticism for their role in the affair.
Around 10,000 Irish supporters applied for the FAI’s allocation but the vast majority were left disappointed and forced to explore other avenues such as seats in the home section after failing to receive any of the 3,029 tickets set aside to away fans.
“There is a learning for us and I accept that mistakes were made,” he told the Ray D’Arcy Show on Today FM this morning.
“One of the guys inside the FAI just said to me the other day ‘I took my eye off the ball’ in certain cases and I have to accept that mistakes are made”.
“What I tried to do in the Association was to rectify the situation over the weekend by buying corporate tickets at £125 and selling them back for £45.”
Delaney says that the organisation will now appoint a liaison officer for away fans who don’t want to join supporters groups going forward but says that will only solve some of the issues if home teams stick rigidly to the five per cent away allocation rule.
“That will rectify it in the main going forward, but you will never get it right if you don’t have enough tickets. You can’t get it right.
“We didn’t get enough tickets from Scotland and the most annoying thing for us is the Scottish FA told us a few weeks ago that it was sold out and they wouldn’t increase their allocation. But they haven’t been sold out and they were selling them right up until yesterday at the Scottish end.”
While one supporters group You Boys in Green (YBIG) has welcomed the news that the association has been able acquire additional premium tickets and agreed that an increased allocation from the Scottish FA would have been preferable.
However, they say the FAI “cannot ignore the systematic failure of their own ticketing systems, or lack thereof, for this game.”
