SOCCER/ Euro 2004: The Switzerland Football Association have allocated just 3,000 tickets to the FAI for the final Group 10 game at St Jakob Park, Basle, on October 11th. The stadium holds just 30,000 and they are only required to supply 10 per cent of their total capacity to the away team.
In excess of 11,000 Irish supporters have already applied for tickets but none of these people will be able to purchase tickets via the FAI directly.
"There are two ways of breaking down the ticket allocation," said FAI spokesman Declan Conroy. "In and around 1,300 tickets are allocated to 10-year ticket holders, sponsors, official travel agents, senior players and officials. The other 1,600 to 1,700 are for individuals or groups with block-bookings of Lansdowne road."
The majority of the block-bookings are from clubs, domestic leagues and supporters clubs so although there is no public sale for tickets, a small contingent of fans will at least will be travelling.
"Nobody got near the allocation they wanted. So there will clearly be more disappointed people than satisfied, but we only got 3,000 tickets," added Conroy.
Meanwhile, Switzerland coach Koebi Kuhn has refused to panic despite the threat of his side missing out on even a play-off spot following their 4-1 defeat to Russia on Wednesday night. They now need three points at home to Brian Kerr's men to finish top of Group 10.
Although they still lead the group with 12 points they would miss out altogether if they are beaten by Ireland, and Russia avoid defeat to Georgia in Moscow on the same night.
"We accept the defeat and now we will look forward," said the under pressure Swiss boss.
"We lost to a clearly better opponent, but we still have another game against Ireland that we will use."
Liverpool defender Stephane Henchoz, who was heavily criticised following a collectively disappointing defensive display in Moscow, was also upbeat. "Four-one is a heavy defeat and that hurts," he said. "The defence did not play well and it is a big disappointment. But if we put things right it will be possible to win our last match."
Irish hopes have been boosted by the likelihood that inspirational midfielder Hakan Yakin is likely to be absent following groin surgery while Ricardo Cabanas will be suspended after being sent off in Moscow.
Wednesday's victory reinvigorated Russia's chances of qualifying for the finals next summer as they now only need to beat bottom side Georgia, at home, in their final match next month to secure at least a play-off spot.
Playing in only his second international, Dynamo Moscow striker Dmitry Bulykin has been hailed the Russia saviour after his hat-trick sank the Swiss challenge.
New Russia coach Georgy Yartsev has also received a lot of the plaudits for turning around his countries fortunes in just two games.
"I must admit we were in a critical situation before these two matches," said Yartsev. "But I believed in the tactics I was using and most importantly, I believed in the players to implement them."
• UEFA will decide next week whether teams will be seeded for the five play-off matches, which will be decided over home and away legs on November 15th/16th and 18th/19th.
