The boys in green are going to be outnumbered for once. By a lot, too.
Any notions the Irish had of taking over Lyon will have dampened a little with the news of the ticket allocation for the second round of Euro 2016.
The Republic take on France on Sunday (kick-off 2pm Irish time) and, whilst nobody thought the host nation would be overrun by green jerseys, they probably thought it would be a hell of a lot closer than the reality of it.
Ireland have secured just 4,500 tickets for the knockout round.
The Parc Olympique Lyonnais holds 59,186 and, whilst the FAI are working to get more tickets set aside for travelling Irish fans, there’s expected to be less than 5,000 in attendance. That’s around 80 per cent fewer than the total that managed to get to Lille for the Italy game – a stadium with a lower capacity.
Ireland France tickets sold out on Uefa Ticket Portal. Didn't have a chance
— Emmett B (@echelsea92) June 23, 2016
The FAI issued a statement on Thursday to Irish fans at their training base in Versailles after supporters were advised to go to the ticket portal at 2pm.
“3,500 tickets were sold during the initial ticketing phase,” the statement read.
“The problem is that the game is against the host nation and they have snapped up the vast majority of tickets.
“It’s in Stade de Lyon with 55,000 tickets on the night. The vast majority are French and will be sold already. We have secured an extra 1,000 on top of the extra 3,500.
“John Delaney secured an extra 104 tickets.”
Efforts are still ongoing to get more tickets for the Ireland fans but, as it stands, there’ll be 50,000 French supporters there with just 5,000 Irish at most. 10 French natives for every one person from Ireland.
