THE FAI WILL review the ticket situation around women’s international matches after last night’s historic World Cup qualifier win against Finland fell short of a capacity crowd.
Tickets on general sale sold out in 30 minutes when they were made available in July, but while the game attracted a record crowd of 6,952, it was short of Tallaght’s 8,000 capacity.
The empty seats were a result of ticket-holders not turning up on the day, a fact which has disappointed the FAI, who could have otherwise redistributed the tickets to fans who could attend. The Association expect that 5-10% of tickets holders won’t attend a game, be it a men’s or women’s international, though the number of empty seats at last night’s game exceeded that threshold.
The FAI will review the issue at the end of the window as part of their standard reviews of every international fixture.
A discussion of the price of tickets for the next qualification campaign may be part of that review. Tickets are currently priced at €10 for adults and €5 for kids, but an increase in price may incentivise ticket-holders to turn up on the day.
2,000 match tickets were set aside for 91 grassroots clubs, from whom the FAI received requests for more than 4,000 tickets. Images of clusters of empty seats caused frustration to fans at home who wanted to buy tickets but couldn’t.
Manager Vera Pauw and captain Katie McCabe led pre-game messaging on the importance of ticket-holders turning up on the day, and in a radio interview this morning, Pauw said those ticket-holders who didn’t show would be feeling “silly” after Ireland secured a World Cup play-off for the very first time by beating Finland 1-0.
He is such a talent,i just hope he doesnt fade out like so many other players.How is it that Belgium are producing these players?
Looking over the hedges into Holland for the last 20 years I’d say….
If the Irish public and the fai gave a toss about our league, maybe one day we could be producing players of that caliber and competing in the champions league.
Put pressure on the FAI to revamp the league, new teams & franchise. One team per county & 2 for Dublin! GET OF YOUR BARSTOOL IRELAND.
Next Friday Irl are probably gonna get slaughtered by Germany, and the same old moaning will start! do something about it stop relying on England’s hand me downs, produce our own players! Mimic Spain & Belgium, build academies!
I’m free on Wednesday Michael if that’s any good to ya?
We’ll do it tomorrow
Hes Kosovan but they have no team, hes going to play with Albainia
He hasn’t decided who he’s going to play for yet. He said two years ago that he would make his decision when he’s playing regular first team football.
He could play with England from 2015 due to residency rules.
The new Paul Scholes?
Belgium will be hoping they can hold on to him, as will Utd. I don’t know why he wouldn’t declare for Belgium as they should do well in the world cup next year and have a great chance of winning Euro 2016 or World Cup 2018.
What position did he start today?
Left mid
He might have an Irish granny and is probably holding on for a calling up from our new gaffer!
Eh, Roy Hodgson started talking about “nationalising” him so he can qualify as an England player- his Irish granny has got no chance…although as usual they’re way ahead of themselves, cos everybody wants to play for Engurland.
As long as he’s not the new Pogba (Contract ends at the end of the season), you can call him whatever you want.
Isn’t Januzaj out of contact at the end of the season?! This performance will have his agent doing cartwheels.
Delighted, glad to see a united team finally fight tooth and nail….
He’s the new Macheda!
Nah, in fairness he’s good alright.
Ive been saying since pre season that this kid should be starting in the team. He played every week during pre season and scored and couple and made a couple of assists. He will be a more central player as he gets older ( he started wide today ) And he will be one of the best in the world in a couple of years.
Belgium have unearthed a a load of excellent offensive midfielders in the last few years. But are still weakish in defence. Not sure they will be winning any major comps.
They have unearthed a lot of attacking talent based on the decision to standardise the playing formation to 4-3-3 across all levels of Belgium football a few years ago. Seemed strange at the time but it appears to be paying off now. They also copied the Barcelona academy training regime by having their young players first play 5v5 then 8v8 and eventually 11v11 to improve their technical ability. If they hold the ball as well as Barca it won’t matter how good their defence is. Having said that they have some good defenders in Verthongen, Vermaelan and Kompany
Weakish in defence? Vertonghon ,vermalan, kompany, van buyten(b.munich),alderweireld(a.madrid), lombaerts(zenith)…….do you watch football….
”He can be anything he wants to be”declares Carrick.
I think he will stick to being a footballer, good lad Carrick.
brill goal especially the second this is wat united have been crying out for..a good midfielder…..onwards and upward plz sign a new contract…MUFC TILL I DIE!!!
What a Crowd of Fakes..
Who here is a Manchester city fan I know I am
Goway Dermot look at the state of you
Mötley… Another winning bet look at my twitter