David Sneyd reports from Prague

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND fans in Prague are understood to have secured in the region of 2,000 tickets within the home section for the World Cup qualifier with Czechia.

Ireland have only been officially allocated 1,024 away tickets for the play-off semi-final, but three times that number of travelling fans could be inside the Fortuna Arena come kick-off on Thursday night.

Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side face the Czechs at the home of Slavia Prague, which has a capacity of 20,000. While there were 6,000 applications from fans for tickets in the designated Ireland end, only 1,024 were allocated as per competition rules.

However, sources within the Football Association of Ireland and An Garda Síochána confirmed to The Journal that around 2,000 Irish fans are expected to take their place among the Czech support.

It’s understood that these tickets were purchased legitimately despite Czech authorities clamping down on third-party websites selling at inflated prices.

Initially, the Czech FA attempted to combat Ireland fans purchasing tickets in larger numbers by introducing a new grading system back in February, which meant only people with a Czech passport who also had a booking history could purchase a maximum of four each.

They then carried out a public sale to anyone with a Czech ID – which was open to Irish residents – and after the capacity was quickly filled, it soon became apparent that Ireland fans began to pick up tickets either on the black market or through various contacts.

While it is compulsory by Czech law for foreign nationals to carry their passport on them, there is an acceptance that carrying out checks on every supporter attending tomorrow’s game is prohibitive.

However, tickets bought from resale sites are being scoured by the Czech FA and Ireland supporter liaison officer Gary Spain has released a statement for fans.

“The Czech Federation have warned us over cancelled and fake tickets. Please do not buy from any unauthorised sources.

“The game is totally sold out. People are reselling the same PDF multiple times. Please be careful.”