How many tickets will Ireland fans get for the World Cup play-off semi-final?

The 42

IRELAND’S TICKET ALLOCATION for March’s World Cup qualification play-off semi-final could be as little as 1,000 tickets, depending on the outcome of Thursday’s draw.

After their heroics against Portugal and Hungary, Ireland are set to face one of Poland, Wales, Czechia or Slovakia in a one-legged playoff semi-final on 26 March.

As the unseeded ‘Pot 3′ team, Ireland will be drawn away from home, and although the ticket allocation is yet to be officially confirmed, it will be 5% of stadium capacity at minimum, as mandated by Uefa’s regulations.

The best-case scenario in terms of ticket availability for the travelling Irish support would be a clash with Poland at the PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, where a 5% away allocation would translate to 2,900 tickets approximately.

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A showdown against Wales in the Cardiff City Stadium would see a little over 1,600 tickets made available to travelling Irish fans — a number which would jump to over 3,700 in the unlikely event that Wales decide to host the match at the Principality Stadium.

Slovakia’s home ground is Tehelné pole in Bratislava, which would accommodate approximately 1,100 travelling supporters, while Czechia has the smallest away section of the four, with less than 1,000 away tickets guaranteed for the Fortuna Arena in Prague.

The winner progresses to face a Pot 1 (Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine) or Pot 4 (Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland) team in the final on 31 March. A draw will decide who plays at home.

The full play-off draw takes place at 12pm tomorrow in Zurich. It will be available to watch live on the RTÉ News Channel and on RTÉ Player.

Written by Emma Duffy and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.