The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is to investigate how tickets for several forthcoming international matches ended up being sold on a ticket touting website at inflated prices.

The website www.premiertickets.ie is offering tickets for all of Ireland's matches in the new Aviva Stadium at higher prices than the original face value of the tickets, despite the FAI's announcement that all the games are completely sold out.

A statement on the FAI website says: "All general admission tickets for Republic of Ireland games in Aviva Stadium are now sold out," and expresses thanks to "all Irish football fans for their unwavering support".

Yet, many Irish football fans are now confronted with paying up to €30 per ticket over the face value of the original price if they wish to support their team in the new stadium.

An FAI spokesperson told the Sunday Tribune that they were unaware of the tickets for sale on the website and said it "appears absolutely incredible".

The tickets, which originally cost €40 for north and south stand seats and €55 to be positioned in the east or west stands when purchased from the FAI, jump in price to €70 and €85 when purchased from the website.

"It looks as if one of our block-bookers is responsible for selling these tickets online and perhaps it should be reconsidered if they have such access to tickets in future," said the FAI spokesperson.

"All tickets for every match are equipped with a traceable serial number and we are asking any fans who have paid higher prices than normal for tickets to contact the FAI with the serial number on their ticket so we can investigate the problem.

"There is no need for fans to be paying these prices as some tickets will be made available closer to the dates of the matches and we would urge anyone looking for tickets to keep an eye on the FAI website for availability.

"We are obligated to keep at least 10% of all the tickets available in the stadium for supporters of the guest team and there will be a small number of extra tickets made available to Irish fans closer to the events."

Premiertickets.ie did not respond to queries. On its website, it describes itself as a "ticket broker" which always buys "tickets at above face value from a third and sometimes fourth party". For that reason, it says, it cannot sell tickets at face value.