Wales fans face being allocated a grand total of just 2,037 tickets per World Cup match in Qatar, with Football Association of Wales bosses striving to increase their allocation.
Chief executive Noel Mooney said the FAW is working with football's global governing body FIFA and other partners to try and secure more tickets.
Wales beat Ukraine 1-0 last Sunday to secure World Cup qualification for the first time in 64 years, and were cheered on by a sell-out crowd of 32,660. But Rob Page's men are set to be cheered on by a fraction of the Red Wall when they face the USA, Iran and England in the pool stages at this winter's finals in Qatar (and hopefully beyond).
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That's because those games are being staged at the 40,740-capacity Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, with Wales expected to be awarded a FIFA-approved ticket allocation of around five per cent - which would be 2,037 tickets for Wales' group-stage venue.
With Wales being the last team to qualify, Mooney has spoken of an "uphill battle" in terms of getting everything from ticketing, accommodation and assisting fans done within six months, although the Wales camp was booked provisionally back in January.
"The way it works with FIFA protocols is we only get about 5% of the stadium - with a stadium of 40,000, 5% of that is not a whole lot," Mooney told Radio Wales. "We have to work with FIFA and other angles to try and get as many tickets as we can for our supporters.
"You’d hope, going to Qatar, that we’d get a few thousand for each of the matches. Of course, we’ve got a huge membership. There's a huge demand."
As for the reasons behind such a small ticket allocation, Mooney drew from his 10 years' work at UEFA and how they operated allocation for European Championship tournaments.
"There’s a huge amount of tickets that go to the people from the region," he explained. "Part of the reason Euros award a competition to someone is to promote football in that region. In the Middle East - which is not just Qatar, it’s the countries around it, of course - they want as many locals to get to the games as well. That’s one part of it.
"What I would also say is that FIFA and UEFA have huge commitments in terms of the other national associations, the ones that aren’t playing, because it’s part of the celebration. It’s 211 associations in world football.
"Also large commitments to sponsors, media, your partners, etc. that snap up the tickets as well, and of course in the likes of Qatar there’ll be large hospitality areas."
He said football bosses have been "furiously" going through details like ticket prices, and formal ticket information is hoped to be released for fans this week.
However, Mooney claimed some prices for the final appear "off the Richter scale".
"I saw some pricing for the final, for example, and it’s been mentioned to me that a category one ticket for the final is something like $5,000 which sounds off the Richter scale to me. I bought a ticket myself for category two in 2014 to go to the World Cup final in Brazil - it was Argentina v Germany - and I think it was something like $600, which even at the time that’s a lot of money to go and see a game of football. When I’m hearing some of the numbers for the final and stuff out in Qatar, which we hope to be in, they seem a lot but we’re working through that.
"We’ll put out the official information later this week. We just want to put all our ducks in a row. We’re liaising with FIFA at every hour at this stage to get all of our details. We’ll put out official information later this week, which will have travel. We have travel partners that we’re working with to put packages together.
"Let’s hope that we come out the other side of it, that all of our fans are happy with the arrangements we put in place, which they always are so far. This is a particular challenge, especially being the last ones to qualify. There’s 31 countries that have had dibs at stuff before us, so we’re coming in late to the party. But we’re very happy! We got there and now we have to make the very most of it."
Get your Wales World Cup 48-page souvenir special on Saturday, June 11. Order your copy via the online shop here.
