Despite an official ticket allocation of only 5,000 for the 58,000-seater GottliebDaimler Stadion, a huge number of fans have got around this by logging on to German ticket websites and buying directly there, securing seats intended for German supporters. Illustrating the ease with which the tickets were acquired, one Irish fans' website even had a message board entitled "Fools' guide to buying German tickets", one boasting of his group buying up to 150 seats.

Such is the scale of fans expected, FAI Director of Communications Declan Conroy said the organisation have contacted the Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB) to warn them. "There is no way of substantiating the exact number of tickets sold to Irish fans, but we have had many reports of supporters purchasing a large quantity over the internet and have written to the German FA to notify them of the situation."

Although the DFB were unavailable for comment, the main internet site selling tickets has since put up a disclaimer indicating tickets will no longer be sent to Irish addresses and that such purchases will be cancelled without notification. However, with many fans already having received their tickets, the qualifier could match the scenes when Ireland played France at the Stade de France in October 2004.