Up to 1,000 Irish fans may be refused in Copenhagen

Tickets bought for sections reserved for Danish supporters not mailed to Ireland

Only a small fraction of Irish fans travelling to Copenhagen for Ireland’s World Cup playoffs will actually be in the ground. Photo: Donall Farmer/Inpho

The Danish Football Federation (DBU) has warned up to 1,000 Irish fans may be unable to get into Saturday night’s World Cup play-off game in Copenhagen because they have bought tickets for sections of the ground reserved for home supporters.

The Irish fans facing problems are those who bought tickets for home sections of the ground when they went on sale online and provided addresses in Ireland for delivery.

DBU communications director Jacob Wadland said no tickets have been posted to Ireland.

A number of fans have expressed concern on social media over the past 24 hours that tickets they ordered have not arrived.

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‘Irish federation’

Mr Wadland explained: “All of the tickets intended for Irish fans were sent to the Irish federation for distribution, and so the only way to order a ticket to be mailed to Ireland was to buy in the Danish section. None of these tickets have been mailed.

“I presume that these supporters have not been able to get tickets in the Irish section and have panicked and bought tickets for other parts of the ground. They might be thinking that it will be okay but it will not be okay. We will be quite strict about this.”

Mr Wadland said there was no possibility of diverting these fans to the away section because it was sold out.

Asked how many supporters might be affected, Mr Wadland said the federation is still working on clarifying the number, but “we think it might be several hundred, possibly up to 1,000”.

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times