FAI hope for 6,500 Irish fans in Mainz

THE FAI have asked their counterparts in Georgia for 6,500 tickets for the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying game in Mainz this day week.

Under FIFA regulations, the Georgian Football Federation are obliged only to provide 10% of capacity — which, at the Bruchwegstadion for this game, is 1,000 seats — for visiting supporters but, because of the unusual circumstances of the fixture, and the belief that not many Georgian fans are expected to attend, the FAI are keen to maximise the Irish attendance.

Said FAI chief executive John Delaney: “I always felt the game would not be played in Georgia and we worked hard in the background with UEFA, FIFA and the GFF to get the game moved. Thankfully it’s sorted now, although not as quick as it should have been from the fans’ point of view.

“We’ve looked for 6,500 tickets from the Georgian FA. The most important people to look after first are the 1,000 we expected to be in Georgia. They’re the people who follow us everywhere. But we’d like to have more tickets.”

FAI staff on the ground in the German city have already sourced hotel and training facilities for the squad and the plan now is that they will have an extra day’s training in Mainz the day after the game against Georgia before flying to Montengro on Monday for the qualifier there the following Wednesday, September 10.

Delaney says a neutral venue rather than a postponement of the Georgian game was always the best option.

“It was hard enough to get a deal in Sofia (at the Group 8 fixtures meeting),” he said. “If Georgia’s two home games in October got cancelled then you’d have got real problems because there’s very few gaps left. Reversing fixtures was not an option either because we wouldn’t have the use of Croke Park. The best compromise was to go to a neutral venue.”

Asked if he thought that FIFA would decide that all Georgia’s home qualifying games should now be played away from Tblisi, the FAI boss replied: “No. I’ve spoken to all the top people in FIFA at the highest level about this over the last couple of weeks. And their view is very simple: they’ll take each game on a case by case basis.”