Thousands of Ireland fans are set to descend on Prague in March for the World Cup play-off against Czechia, but only a small portion of those who travel are likely to get into the game itself.

The FAI have been given an allocation of just 1,000 tickets for the game, with the fixture taking place at the 19,000 capacity Fortuna Arena. As a result, only those who have attended a number of other away games in recent times are likely to be granted a ticket.

The industrious bunch that they are, you would have expected Ireland fans to find other methods to enter the game. However, that process will be made a lot more difficult due to changes made by the Czech FA.

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Czechia Bring In Measures To Keep Ireland Fans Out Of World Cup Play-Off

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The Czech FA have announced that some ticketing changes will be put in place ahead of March’s World Cup play-off against Ireland, with ID checks and price changes set to come into effect.

As reported by the Irish Independent, in an effort to stop Irish fans getting seats in the home section, those who purchase tickets will have to do so via a loyalty programme and provide ID to prove that they hail from the home nation.

In an effort to encourage sales, tickets in the home end will also start from just €20, going up to €67 in price. Those are the lowest ticket prices for a Czechia home fixture in two decades.

In a statement, the Czech FA explained their decision.

Since the draw for the play-off pairs in November, the Football Association of the Czech Republic has registered an enormous interest from Irish fans in getting to the semi-final match of the play-off for a place in the World Cup at any cost…

Ticket purchases will now be made exclusively through the FC REPRE loyalty program , where the purchasing fan of the Czech national team will enter a valid ID number [ID card, passport, etc], including the expiration date. Subsequently, the identity will be verified in the background through the National Identity Authority (NIA).

These measures were necessary to ensure that fans could enjoy the greatest possible football experience. The goal is to have both home stadiums filled to the maximum with fans of the Czech national team.

Czechia have had some issue when it comes to filling their ground during this World Cup campaign, with attendances well below the desired level for their recent qualifiers. The fans also heavily criticised the team after some of their performances.

The Czech authorities will hope that these measures will lower the chances of a repeat scenario when Ireland come to town in March.

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