FA Defends Polish Wembley Ticket Allocation

The Football Association (FA) has defended its decision to sell Poland double the amount of tickets they are entitled to ahead of their crucial World Cup qualifier.

FIFA rules state that visiting nations are allowed 10% of the stadium’s seats for qualification matches. Wembley seats 90,000, which would entitle Poland to 9000 tickets, however they have been given 18,000 by the FA. 

England must win the match in order to guarantee their place at next year’s World Cup in Brazil, though Poland are unable to qualify. The move has been criticised by some England fans, who believe the larger away contingent could give their opponents an unneccesary boost. The FA argues the decision was made because it believed Polish fans would have otherwise bought tickets in the home section and pose a health and safety risk.

An FA spokesman said: “The FA, working with the Polish FA, have provided 18,000 tickets to Polish supporters.

“With high demand for tickets from the large Polish community in England the FA took the decision, based on safety grounds, to ensure Polish fans were allocated space in a specific area of the ground rather than attempting to buy tickets in home areas.

“Tickets in the home areas have been restricted to previous buyers only, with no tickets now remaining for this fixture.

“This is the same process that was employed for the successful Scotland and Republic of Ireland fixtures earlier this year.”

The FA are reported to have consulted with the police before arriving at their decision.