Ireland season ticket price hike defended by FAI boss who outlines 2025 schedule

David Courell has defended the FAI’s decision to hike the price of Ireland season tickets, insisting it still represents value.

But while the chief executive confirmed FAI debt stands at €40m, he would prefer a favourable Word Cup draw for 2025 over seat-filling glamour dates with big nations.

Those World Cup qualifiers form the bulk of Ireland’s matches in 2025, with the draw taking place in Switzerland on December 13.

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Ireland will be in a four-team group which means the qualifiers won’t start until September and will conclude in November.

In the meantime, Ireland play Bulgaria in a two-legged Nations League promotion-relegation playoff in March and will also have June friendlies. It’s unclear how many summer friendlies will be arranged, or who the opposition will be, but at least one game is expected to be in Dublin and part of the season ticket.

Within the 2025 renewal increases, family season tickets have jumped from €460 to €600 and kids tickets have climbed to €100 from €80.

Last month, the group representing supporters’ bodies in Irish football hit out at the hikes. And the ‘Irish Football Supporters Partnership’ also criticised a new system where 50% of the season ticket price was due before the World Cup draw was even made.

Quizzed on the increases, FAI boss Courell said: “It would be remiss of me not to praise our fans who have been fantastic, probably the most loyal in the world. We haven’t always performed in recent years but they have stayed with us. We have the highest season ticket membership of any federation in Europe at 24,500 last year. We don’t take that for granted but equally there are costs associated with hosting games in this fantastic facility (Aviva Stadium).”

Courell continued: “We have only increased ticket prices once (before this) in the last decade. It was merited that we had to increase our season ticket prices but we wanted to reward the loyalty of those fans so if they’re renewing there’s still amazing value there. You can still get an adult ticket for an average of €30 per game which I think we’d all recognise in this day and age in this country represents good value for money.

“While no fan group anywhere in the world would ever countenance any price increases, I’m happy to see the interest in season tickets is in rude health. We’re now at over 20,000 sold already. While I understand there may be some disappointment, hopefully they can understand our cost base is increasing.”

While Ireland will be in a small, four-team group for those World Cup qualifiers, there’s still scope to land heavyweight opposition.

For the failed Euro 2024 bid under Stephen Kenny, Ireland were pitched into a group of death with kingpings France and Netherlands, joining Greece and Gibraltar.

Asked if he would prefer glamour draws or winnable games in the World Cup campaign, Courell plumbed for the latter.

“I think we have been unfortunate, particularly in the men’s team, but also recently in the women’s team, to be drawn in very difficult groups,” he said. “I would be very welcoming to taking a slightly easier path to the main tournament.”

Meanwhile, Courell said any future contract talks with Ireland women’s boss Eileen Gleeson would be parked until after the upcoming Euro playoffs with Wales. And while he expressed satisfaction with men’s boss Hallgrimsson, there are no plans to initiate fresh contract talks with the Icelander’s deal covering the World Cup.

Courell said: “Heimir has landed really well. I think his engagement with the team has been really positive. We’re in a really good place. We’ve got a great relationship with Heimir and I don’t see any reason why we would open those conversations earlier. We’re happy with the direction and the trajectory that we’re on but there’s no movement on the timeline.”

Gleeson admitted last week that she wants to stay on as Ireland boss, but said talks were on hold for now. Asked about it, Courell said: “Our focus is on the next two games. Eileen has done a fantastic job and at the end of this campaign we’ll sit down and decide what’s next."

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