Crawford urges Cork public to turnout in force for upcoming Euro U21 qualifiers
Jim Crawford has called on the Cork public to turnout in force when his Republic of Ireland U21 side begin their Euro 2025 qualification campaign against Turkey and San Marino at Turner’s Cross.
The young Boys in Green start with a double-header on Leeside against Turkey next Friday, September 8th, before facing San Marino four days later, on Tuesday September 12th.
The FAI agreed to hold their opening two Group A matches at the home of Cork City FC following the successful friendly outing against Iceland in March, which saw a crowd of 6,048 attend the Irish U21’s first match in Cork for 14 years.
But with just a week to go until that meeting with the Turks, it is understood that just over 2,000 tickets have been sold despite both games being available to purchase on a “duo deal” with most people potentially favouring to purchase them on the day instead.
“We played in Cork in March and it was great,” began Crawford.
“It had a real event feel about it beforehand and we got over six and a half thousand at the game which was brilliant.
“It’s a part of the FAI’s strategic plan in terms of getting all around the country and I think Cork – as I have said before – has developed a lot of good footballers and certainly the 21s owe Cork something.
“To play our home games in Cork… getting a crowd of six and a half thousand for a friendly against Iceland was brilliant but what we really want going forward is to have a full house against Turkey on the Friday night so we can start our campaign on a positive foot.
“Same again against San Marino because that then becomes an important game in the campaign, second game where we will need three points.
“The crowd will help us, there is no doubt about it. There’s a nice tight pitch at
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