The Swiss FA has confirmed that Ireland’s European Championship qualifier away to their senior team will be staged in Geneva on October 15th.
Ireland had most recently played qualifying games against the Swiss in St Jakob-Park, Basel – in 2003 and 2005 – and the decision to stage this game in the somewhat smaller Stade de Genève could impact on the ability of travelling fans to secure tickets for the game.
The stadium in Basel has a capacity of around 37,500 while Geneva holds just about 30,000. With visiting sides entitled to a minimum of five per cent of the capacity that means the FAI will receive at least 1,500 seats as opposed to something much closer to 1,900.
The host federation tends to move its senior games around and the decision to stage this one in Geneva is understood to have been prompted, in part, by financial considerations, although it may also say something about the estimation of Ireland’s strength and drawing power that the match has been pencilled in for the smaller ground.
Many senior games have been staged there since the stadium’s completion in 2003 but the vast majority have been friendlies. In terms of qualifiers, there have been just four – against Albania, Moldova, Cyprus and Latvia – the most recent in March of 2017, but they have won every one of them. It will be Ireland’s first time to play there.
For Mick McCarthy’s side, the game will be the penultimate outing of the campaign with just the visit of Denmark to Dublin to come the following month. The team will travel to Geneva direct from Georgia where they play on the Saturday evening. Kick off against Switzerland has been scheduled for 8.45pm local time (7.45pm Irish time).
