Too few tickets for Iceland fans, says star Sigurdsson

Nice (France) (AFP) – Iceland star Gylfi Sigurdsson criticised UEFA’s ticket distribution system for Euro 2016 knockout games, which he said has stopped more Icelandic fans attending his team’s last-16 showdown with England on Monday.

“We’d love to have more tickets for the Icelandic people,” Sigurdsson told reporters in the Stadium Nice on Sunday. 

Between 3,000 and 3,500 places in the 34,500-capacity ground will go to Iceland fans, the team’s spokesperson told AFP. 

“Uefa have to find another solution how they distribute the tickets for the knockout games,” said the 26-year-old Swansea City midfielder. 

“It would have been nice to have 10,000-15,000 people here, but the people at the game will be loud, hopefully we can make them proud.”

Some 27,000 Iceland fans, almost 10 percent of the country’s entire population of around 330,000, purchased tickets for the group stage matches.

Sigurdsson’s criticism follows similar remarks by Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill who protested about the allocation for Irish fans for his team’s last-16 game with France. 

Irish fans received only 4,500 places in the 59,000-capacity Lyon stadium.

Thousands of Irish fans headed for Lyon hoping to get black market tickets. Touts were demanding up to 1,000 euros ($1,100) for tickets in the city in the hours before the game.