While two of the main tour operators associated with the football travel market have decided against organising packages for the forthcoming European Championships play-off in Turkey, 747 Travel confirmed yesterday that they would be going ahead with the trip.

Ray Treacy, who organises the official travel for away games, made it clear on the day Ireland was drawn to play Turkey that he would not be bringing fans to the away leg of the tie because, he said, in light of events at previous games there he felt he could not guarantee their safety.

Subsequently Abbey Travel, who had an initial inquiry to the FAI regarding tickets for the away match, decided against proceeding with any packages either. The upshot is that only 747 will now go through with the trip but they have reduced the number of tickets they have applied for from 1,000 to around 200.

In a statement issued yesterday the company's managing director, Michael Caslin says that he attended last week's Champions League match between Galatasaray and Chelsea and also travelled to Bursa in order to see the facilities and check on the security arrangements for the game.

Describing recent publicity about the problems associated with football in Turkey as "unfair", Caslin says that, while there were some problems at the 1991 Irish game there, things have changed and that Turkey is now "well used to hosting international games".