Delaney accepts tickets were too dear

FAI CHIEF executive John Delaney has conceded ticket prices for Wednesday’s friendly against Australia in Thomond Park were too high and said a revised structure will be announced next Monday for the South Africa game at the venue on September 8th.

“Well, we got 19,400 in and I know when Ireland played a rugby game there against Canada they got 19,000 in,” he said. “But I think we have to be more flexible on the pricing for the South Africa game. We’ll announce that on Monday.

“I think we have to look at a more family-orientated price as well. I think we probably got a little learning off that, to be honest.

“But still, 19,400 was a good turnout and, in terms of the overall running of the organisation, the difference between playing at home and playing an away friendly, along with the TV monies we get from Sky, it’s a significant profit for the organisation.

“In the wider context of the week, too, about 7,000 people saw the training in St Michael’s and, with all the openings that we did, there is a long-term legacy out of what we have done down here this week.”

Notwithstanding the result, the Australia game will still be seen as a missed opportunity, however, and there was an expectation within the association that both games would sell out when they were announced.

Of the official 19,428 attendance, Delaney said around 2,000 tickets would have been complimentary, while the same number again were schoolboy tickets priced at just €7. The terrace tickets, priced at €25 and €35, sold out, leaving at least 6,000 of the €55 stand tickets unsold.

Delaney confirmed, meanwhile, that the association will still run the friendly between Cork City and Celtic and ensure the funds generated are forwarded to the third party who loaned the money required by the club to pay its tax arrears.

“We’re still going to run the Celtic game,” he said. “And the proceeds will go to the person who paid the money to pay the revenue.

“Whatever profits are made out of that game, we will collect the money and hand it over to the individual. We gave that in writing to the individual.”

That City survived their scrape with the financial authorities was, said Delaney, to be welcomed, but he accepted more needs to be done to prevent clubs in crisis reaching the brink of extinction.

“You can’t have situations where clubs are within five or 10 minutes of being put out of football,” he said.

“What we’re dealing with is historic debt in certain cases, the recession hasn’t helped obviously and, the third point, some of the owners haven’t yet grasped the nettle of what is a realistic budget.”

In relation to Cork, he said: “There needs to be a more realistic cost base put into the running of the club.

“But that doesn’t mean that full-time football can’t be in Ireland. There just has to be a more realistic cost base for some of the wages that are paid.”