FAI under fire over poor service at Euro 2016 ‘fans embassies’

Ireland might have had the best fans at Euro 2016 but it appears the country's "fans embassies" may have been the worst with the organisation behind the initiative, Football Supporters Europe (FSE), cancelling their agreement with the FAI after the Belgium game on the basis of the poor quality of service provided and significant rule violations.

At that point, it turned at short notice to unofficial supporters group You Boys In Green (YBIG) to provide the information and support services to fans for the team's remaining two matches.

Initiative

The “embassies” are part of a 20-year-old initiative which has the backing of Uefa and the EU which provide facilities and funding. The aim is to provide services to fans while also liaising between them and the authorities.

As in 2012, most associations got involved with the project and helped to ensure that “embassies” were established in cities where games are taking place by volunteers from the competing nations in the days leading up to and on the day of matches.

Four years ago, Ireland’s were successfully run by YBIG activists but the relationship between it and the association deteriorated since then as YBIG repeatedly questioned the fairness of the association’s system of allocating tickets for big games.

Having initially vetoed their involvement, it is believed the association opted instead to send members of its own staff to run the stands in contravention of the FSE’s slogan, “By fans for fans” and its guidelines which state: “A Fans’ Embassy should be an independent centre for fans, which means that the work of the Fans’ Embassy should NOT [their emphasis] be connected to commercial goals, companies or [football] organisations . . . ”

Standards

Even then, though, the Irish embassies appear to have fallen well short of the expected standards. It is understood that amongst the complaints made against the association was that the Irish embassy was not open and functioning on the day of the game against Belgium. More seriously, the association used it on the day prior to that game as a ticket collection point in contravention of the FSE’s rules.

In contrast to the supporters’ group which is given space in or around fan zones for free, associations are normally charged a fee for a space in which to do its own day-to-day admin work.

A few days later, the agreement with the FAI was terminated by the FSE which subsequently listed YBIG as the service provider for the remaining two Ireland games on its website.

"At this point, we cannot comment in detail on this matter," said Daniela Wurbs of FSE, "but only confirm that the agreement between FSE and the FAI for the provision of the Fans Embassy services for Republic of Ireland supporters was cancelledno longer in effect after two matches into the Group Stage of Euro 2016.

"Committed supporters from YBIG then within only a couple of days set up an outstanding Fans Embassy service for the Republic of Ireland supporters throughout the rest of the campaign of the RoI team in the tournament to make sure that RoI supporters are provided with appropriate, accurate, reliable info and sufficient support for the rest of their stay in France.

“We will are seeking to come together with the FAI for an evaluation meeting after Euro 2016.”

The FAI, meanwhile, did not respond yesterday to a request for a comment.