Why this tattooed Dublin fan is calling for action on ticket touts

SOUTH Dublin councillor Mark Ward has called for action against ticket touts in the run up to this Sunday’s All Ireland Football Final between Dublin and Mayo.

The Sinn Féin councillor for Clondalkin is one of the Dubs’ most diehard fans, as the large tattoo on his back (pictured) testifies. A season ticket holder, Cllr Ward said he would welcome any moves to stop tickets ending up on the black market at the expense of genuine GAA fans.

Cllr Ward said: “If you go online today you will see tickets advertised for anything up to €800. This is wrong. I am hoping that with the spotlight on ticket touting due to events in Rio that something will be done to address this scandal.

“The GAA have a system where they give an allocation of All Ireland Final tickets to every club in the country. They give those tickets in good faith to the clubs who then themselves allocate these tickets to their members in good faith. Somewhere in this process tickets end up in the hands of ticket touts.”

He added: “With modern technology I would like to see a system where all tickets are tracked from the GAA to the clubs and the members. I would like to see a taskforce set up with all relevant stakeholders and for the tickets to be taken out of the hands of touts.”