{"id":129027,"date":"2025-05-24T21:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129027\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T21:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T21:41:13","slug":"northern-ireland-fans-set-for-travel-headache-as-world-cup-qualifier-confirmed-for-shock-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129027\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland fans set for travel headache as World Cup qualifier confirmed for shock venue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland’s last game in Slovakia was in Trnava in 2016<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland fans are set for a travel headache after the Slovakian FA seemingly confirmed that their 2026 World Cup qualifier will be played in Kosice as opposed to Bratislava.<\/p>\n

Although Slovakia does have three regular home stadia, it was believed that November\u2019s game would be staged at Teheln\u00e9 pole, the 22,000-seater national stadium in the capital city.<\/p>\n

However, in something of a kick to the teeth of Northern Ireland, the game is now listed for the smaller 12,555-capacity Ko\u0161ick\u00e1 futbalov\u00e1 ar\u00e9na in Kosice instead.<\/p>\n

While venue changes are not unusual for the Green and White Army \u2013 September\u2019s qualifier against Germany has been moved to K\u00f6ln rather than Berlin, for instance \u2013 this one in particular will cause particular problems.<\/p>\n

The Good, the bad and the bubbly: It\u2019s BelTel Football\u2019s review of the season <\/p>\n

\"Listen <\/a> \"Listen <\/a><\/p>\n

Not only have many fans already booked travel and accommodation in Bratislava but Kosice is tough simply to get to, with a journey between the two cities via public transport taking around six hours.<\/p>\n

In fact, so far is it from Bratislava that it would actually be faster for fans to travel to Budapest, the capital of neighbouring Hungary, and get a bus or train from there, which would take just under four hours.<\/p>\n

While there is nothing preventing the Slovakian FA from playing the game in Kosice, the late notice for the fixture swap is a blow for Northern Ireland fans, who by now will have already finalised their travel plans.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland have faced Slovakia outside of Bratislava in the past, meeting them in a friendly in Trnava in 2016, however their only previous competitive fixture in the country was played at the Teheln\u00e9 pole in a World Cup qualifier in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland’s last game in Slovakia was in Trnava in 2016 Northern Ireland fans are set for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[8928,31133,1144,8538,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-129027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-conor-bradley","9":"tag-michael-oneill","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114564988284300907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}