Soccer:FAI chief executive John Delaney confirmed today that the Association has increased its total allocation for the Republic of Ireland's three Group C matches at this summer's European Championships to over 20,000.

Although admitting that it was still not enough to satisfy demand from supporters wishing to travel to Poznan and Gdansk, Delaney said he will continue to try and increase supply before June.

The initial allocation of 6,000 tickets for each of the games against Croatia, Spain and Italy has now increased to just over 20,000 in total, although there was no exact breakdown given by Delaney.

“In total, for the three games we’ll be receiving a little over 20,000 tickets, which is about 7,000 tickets per match,” said Delaney. “Our applications have been greater than that but at least it’s something.

“We’ll keep trying, I haven’t given up yet. First of all we have to wait and see how the Italians and Croatians manage their take up of the tickets for our games. If there’s any of their allocation left over, those tickets come back to us. We’ll know that in early March. I wouldn’t be hopeful of Croatia or Spain, I think they’ll take good numbers, but there might be some left over from the Italians.

“If there are, they come immediately back to us. It’s important we get as many Irish fans into the ground as possible. That’s what we want, that’s what the players want and that’s what the management want.”