The French Football Federation has allocated just 10% of the tickets for the second leg of the upcoming World Cup play-off to Irish fans.

A total of 8,000 tickets will be sold through the FAI for the match at the 80,000-seater Stade de France.

The FFF has also decided that the 72,000 tickets available to French fans will be sold through retail outlets and not over the Internet.

The policy would appear to be an attempt to prevent the situation that arose during the World Cup qualifiers in 2004, when 30,000 Irish fans managed to get tickets for the game against France in Paris.

The Irish fans drowned out the home support during the game, which ended in a 0-0 draw.