FAI chief defends season ticket price hike

Gavin Cooney

FAI CEO DAVID Courell has defended the Association’s price hike in season tickets for the senior men’s international team. 

Price increases for home games across 2025 have been criticised by supporters’ groups, who have also hit out against the FAI’s policy of asking for 50% of the price of the ticket up front, before Ireland even know their opponents in next year’s World Cup qualifiers. 

Season tickets for home games across 2024 ranged from €150 to €320: these included friendly matches against Belgium, Switzerland, and Hungary along with Nations League games against England, Greece, and Finland. 

Season tickets currently on sale range from €180.50 to €405.50. 

The price for renewals, meanwhile, increased on average of €25 per person. 

Next year’s season ticket includes Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign, though it will feature only three home games as Ireland will be drawn in a four-team group. Ireland will learn most of their opponents at the draw on 13 December, though the final line-up of opponents may not be known until the end of the Nations League play-offs next March. 

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Next year’s season ticket will also include access to the second leg of the Nations League play-off against Bulgaria, along with at least one friendly international in June. 

Fan groups have also criticised a new loyalty system under the new season ticket, whereby fans are rewarded with twice as many loyalty points for attending home games as they are for away games. This is in turn will give fans priority access to 2026 World Cup tickets along with the six Euro 2028 games to be hosted at the Aviva Stadium, a tournament for which Ireland are highly likely to qualify as co-hosts. 

“It would be remiss of me not to praise our fans who have been fantastic, probably the most loyal fans in the world”, said Courell.

“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. We have only increased ticket prices once 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, even for non-renewing. 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 am 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 a glamour qualifier draw would be a commercial benefit to the FAI, Courell would prefer a lower-profile set of opponents if it meant an easier path to the World Cup. 

“I think that 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.” 

Courell spoke warmly of Heimir Hallgrimsson’s tenure thus far, and said his future will be discussed at the end of Ireland’s World Cup campaign, which may be as soon as November next year if Ireland fail to qualify. 

“Heimir has landed really well”, said Courell. “I think his engagement with the team has been really positive. He’s got a young crop of players but he is proven at developing young teams, moving them up the rankings and evolving their style of play.

“I think we’re starting to signs of that, really positive signs. Whilst maybe not the most convincing wins against Finland, they were wins we wouldn’t have secured otherwise in years gone by. I’m very happy with how Heimir has landed. This was not an overnight project, it was one where we identified Heimir as the perfect candidate to bring this forward and he’s well-positioned now to take us into the play-off against Bulgaria and then all eyes on the World Cup,

 ”Leaving the second half in Wembley aside, we recognise that as an Irish footballing nation, we’ve a rich history but we’ve been underperforming in recent years so it wasn’t going to be a flick the switch and move on. I think what we’ve seen is really positive development – putting a bit more shape on the team, trying out different approaches, and I think he’s getting a really good response and reaction from the players. I believe we’ll see 2025 in a very positive light.” 

Courell also defended Hallgrimsson’s decision to delegate much of the September window – which featured home defeats to England and Greece – to assistant John O’Shea. Hallgrimsson leaned heavily on O’Shea as he said he did not have a deep knowledge of the players at his disposal, despite the fact the FAI said he was identified as the number one candidate as early as March of this year. 

“Heimir obviously is a professional”, said Courell. “While he knew he was going to come and join us and had done his research, there are limitations on what you can do when you are in gainful employment with somebody else.

“He had another major tournament [Copa America] that he was delivering with Jamaica and understandably as a professional he was delivering on his commitment to the Jamaican Federation, that he supported them as best he could to come through that tournament so, while you might say there were six months there for him to prepare etc, unfortunately it wasn’t dedicated time to give 100 percent time to the Irish job.” 

Meanwhile, the FAI will sit down with Eileen Gleeson to discuss her position as WNT head coach after the upcoming Euro 2025 play-off against Switzerland. Gleeson’s contract expires at the end of the campaign and is keen to remain in the job, but talks with the FAI have yet to begin.