THE Football Association of Ireland (FAI) will miss out on thousands of euro worth of potential advertising revenue for Ireland's crunch Croke Park tie against the French – and all because the ball isn't kicked high enough.

FAI chiefs admit that they don't even try to sell upper tier advertising at the 82,000 capacity ground as it just wouldn't be worth their while, although they still rake in nearly €1m per match.

"The higher-level advertising boards don't work for soccer. They are too high up because of the way the football stays on the ground," explained FAI commercial director Rory Smyth.

"Nine times out of 10, the space just doesn't get covered on TV."

Those at the recent World Cup ties against Italy and Montenegro would have noticed bare advertising boards around the upper levels of the ground, normally jam packed at GAA fixtures.

Croke Park covers its ads – which are given on a contractual basis for football and hurling fixtures – so that the FAI can use them for its own benefit during internationals.

But for the FAI, virtually 100% of advertising revenue is raised pitch side.

"We wouldn't really bother selling it," said Smyth.

"There are some sites at that level that are advantageous like at the score board and halfway line but the rest wouldn't get the same coverage."

Despite the unused space, the Ireland qualifiers proved valuable to the FAI having been sold in advertising packages to agencies ahead of the recession.

And for the last home game against Italy, the association enjoyed the advantage of a 60 million TV viewership in Italy, the only opponent country targeted by advertising from the Ireland home games.

"The reason the Italian game sold so well was because the majority was sold in the Italian market. We would sell that space to agencies who would then sell it to the Italian advertisers," said Smyth.

Croke Park advertising at the other home games would only be sold in the domestic market.

Upper-tier billboards generally cost around €1,000 per game as compared to €10,000 to €12,000 for eight minutes on a pitch-side rotating board.