FAI continue trawl for Euro tickets

Soccer:The FAI have picked up 400 more tickets for Ireland's matches against Spain and Italy and are hopeful of getting more, the association's chief executive John Delaney has said.

Delaney conceded that there would not be enough tickets as it stands for the estimated 20,000 Irish fans intending to travel to Poland for the European Championships, but the FAI will continue to seek tickets for all the matches.

The 200 tickets for each of Ireland’s second and third games have already been allocated to fans on a waiting list.

Delaney said all tickets are “badly needed” and there remains a long waiting list, especially for the Spain match.

“Right up until the last day, we will be asking for tickets for the games. We want to get as many Irish fans as we can into the grounds.”

The hunt for tickets has become more difficult as both Croatia and Spain, unexpectedly, have taken up their entire allocation while the 2,000 tickets sent back by the Italian FA have already been reallocated to Irish fans.

The FAI now estimates that 10,000 Irish fans have tickets for the Croatia and Spain matches and 12,000 have tickets for the Italian match.

Meanwhile, Delaney said he did not support proposals by the Minister of State for Health Róisín Shortall to end alcohol sponsorship in sport.

He maintained such a ban would only serve to deprive sporting bodies of necessary revenues while doing nothing to deal with Ireland’s alcohol problem.

He proposed that a “common sense” approach should be taken and some of the sponsorship given by drinks companies could be diverted into an awareness programme to promote sensible drinking.

“It is far better that there is some sort of leverage in there to educate children and teenagers. That would be of far more benefit,” he said.

“Nobody will convince that me that by banning alcohol sponsorship, teenagers won't drink alcohol.”

Delaney also defended the FAI’s involvement in the survival guide to Poland which has been published by drinkaware.ie which is paid for by the drinks companies.

He said there was “no harm” in the survival guide. “If anybody picks up anything sensible in that document, it is of value.”