UEFA regulations state that an away team must receive 5% of the stadium's allocation at the very minimum. It's generally recognised that away fans should be given 10% of the allocation. When Wales came to Dublin in March, they received 3,300 tickets - 6.4% of the capacity of the Aviva Stadium. It really pissed off the Welsh fans, who claimed it was all an act of gamesmanship. The head of the Cardiff supporters group at the time said:
We’re outraged really. We’re really disappointed. Normally, we're offered 10% on a reciprocal basis. The gentlemen’s agreement has always been 10%.
We want to play at our home stadium, which is the Cardiff City Stadium. It’s not as big as the Aviva but that’s where we’re at and they should respect that.
A proper football ground is the Cardiff City Stadium and it’s no coincidence we’re playing better there.
Now, it appears as if the Welsh are biting back. The final game of Group D is Wales vs Ireland in Wales. There was the possibility that the game could've taken place in the 74,500 Principality Stadium: while Wales had booked the Cardiff City Stadium for their home qualifiers, they hadn't done so for the final group game against Ireland.
Even if Wales gave the bare minimum, Ireland would still have just under 4,000 fans cheering them on.
Instead, the game is set to take place at the Cardiff City Stadium. Which holds over 40,000 fewer people at 33,280. If Wales copy what we gave to them and allocate 6.4%, then only 2,129 Irish fans will be allowed tickets. If they cut it back to the absolute minimum, then only 1,664 fans will receive tickets.
With four games to go in the group, Ireland and Serbia lead at the top of Group D by four points from Wales and Austria. Martin O'Neill has to bring his side to Georgia and welcome Serbia in a crucial week in September. A month later, Moldova will visit the Aviva in the penultimate game before a potential decider in Cardiff.
They'll need all the support they can get in the first three games because it appears the Dragons are spitting fire over the shenanigans in March. We'll get our coats...
