{"id":248537,"date":"2026-01-16T22:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248537\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T22:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:18:08","slug":"worst-fears-confirmed-as-ireland-ticket-allocation-for-czechia-world-cup-play-off-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248537\/","title":{"rendered":"Worst fears confirmed as Ireland ticket allocation for Czechia World Cup play-off announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 3,000 fans travelled to Budapest for the unforgettable injury-time win against Hungary last November.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_inpho_02828567.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Ireland fans celebrate in Budapest\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Ireland fans celebrate in Budapest(Image: INPHO\/Ryan Byrne)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Irish fans have been dealt a blow as the ticket allocation for the March 26 World Cup play-off semi-final against Czechia has been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Just 1,024 tickets have been made available to away fans for the game, which will be played at Slavia Prague\u2019s Fortuna Arena.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">That\u2019s roughly a third of the number that travelled to Budapest in November to watch <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/republic-of-ireland-soccer\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Ireland<\/a> book their <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/world-cup-qualifiers\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">play-off<\/a> place with a sensational injury-time 3-2 win against Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The news was confirmed on social media by Ireland Football supporter liaison officer Gary Spain, and will lead to a scramble for tickets for the crucial match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He posted: \u201cWe have a confirmed allocation of 1,024 tickets for Czechia. This will obviously be heavily oversubscribed. Allocation will be based on the last ten undersubscribed away games. The ticket office will confirm these in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Ireland were drawn away to Czechia in the draw, which took place a week after the international window that saw <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/troy-parrott\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Troy Parrott<\/a> fire the Boys in Green to wins over Portugal and Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Those two results earned <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/heimir-hallgrimsson\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s<\/a> men a shock play-off place and reignited hopes of a return to the senior men\u2019s <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/fifa-world-cup\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">World Cup<\/a>, 24 years after the last Irish appearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The winners of the Czechia-Ireland game will be at home in the play-off final five days later against the winners of Denmark\u2019s clash with North Macedonia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The capacity of the Fortuna Arena is 19,370, so the FAI have been given slightly more than the five percent minimum that UEFA require for travelling supporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Fans will have to wait until the end of next week before applications for tickets will open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Pricing, allocation and full details will be revealed in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=b1ea692a-d5b9-4239-b4e4-d4296e9f32c1&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 3,000 fans travelled to Budapest for the unforgettable injury-time win against Hungary last November. Ireland fans&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[124791,1113,2957,4700,61,60,43,85353,57217,44452,51964],"class_list":["post-248537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-czech-republic-football-team","tag-fai","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-fans","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-troy-parrott","tag-world-cup-qualifiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}