More than 6,000 Bohs fans could be set to take over the Aviva Stadium for their European qualifier next month.
Minister for Sport, Jack Chambers, revealed the upbeat news for Irish football fans at the launch of the Sport Ireland High Performance Report on Thursday afternoon.
He said that an increased crowd will be part of the Government’s plans for “updating capacity and ambition” for the return of fans at matches.
Mr Chambers said that the capacity at pilot matches in stadia like the Aviva is going up to 3,000, then to 6,000 in the coming weeks.
And he said that by the time Bohemians F.C. line out against Icelandic side Stjarnan for their European qualifier in the Aviva on July 15, he expects it to be more than 6,000 again.
Mr Chambers said: “We’ll be updating both capacity and ambition for July beyond pilots and that’s about getting a lot more fans back at games across many more games than you’ve seen in June.
“So obviously that fixture will fall within that and I know Bohemians fans want to get back to games as well, and other League of Ireland fans as well.”
He added: “We’re as ambitious as anyone to get fans back in a safe way….. and I expect we’ll be able to go with more than six (thousand) for the qualification match.”
