The ticket portal for fans hoping to travel to the European Championships opened up yesterday and sources close to UEFA suggested that over half a million accounts had been opened in the first 12 hours. The total number of tickets available in this round is 800,000.
It is believed that Ireland will get between 17 and 19 per cent of the tickets for each match meaning that a total of nearly 16,000 will be coming through official channels.
The application process requires passport numbers and there is also a box for filling in fan club or season ticket details held with the national association.
There are no details yet as to whether this will give a boost to your chances of obtaining a ticket.
Worryingly there are already a glut of tickets being offered for sale via reseller sites. This would mean that the identity check for those who are obtaining tout sold tickets would be impossible so either the tickets will be invalid or a large security breach would be opened up.
The latter is surely unthinkable given the recent terror attacks on the St Denis Stade de France.
Tickets through the site are available for the group matches on June 13th, 18th and 22nd from as little as €25. Most fans would pay more than that to follow their dream but they would need to be assured of entry rather than arrest and that may yet prove the biggest deterrent to touts, so long as UEFA are willing to check.
The ticket portal will remain open to applications until January 18th.
