Cork GAA has appealed to the public not to send postal applications to its office in an attempt to secure tickets for the All-Ireland hurling final.

The office at Páirc Uí Chaoimh has been receiving a lot of letters containing cheques in the last week from members of the public keen to buy tickets.

PRO of Cork GAA, Joseph Blake, has asked people to refrain from doing so and said all payments would be processed by electronic funds transfer.

“In previous times people would send in a self-addressed envelope with a letter and a cheque hoping to get tickets for All-Ireland finals,” he said.

“A lot of these cases would be genuine, they could be former All-Ireland winners with Cork and they would be entitled to tickets, there’s a long-standing tradition there, they might be moved away from Cork and no longer involved in the GAA scene anymore in Cork.

“Or you could have former county board officers or different people who would be involved in the GAA in Cork for many years.

“But in the last couple of days there have been a lot of cheques arriving at the Páirc Uí Chaoimh office. We don’t want that happening, we want to stop that.

“Any cheques that have been sent in will be returned in those envelopes and any payments to be made will be done online.”

He said that there is a massive demand for tickets for this year’s All-Ireland, particularly with the attendance halved due to Covid-19 measures.

Attendance has dropped from 82,000 to 40,000 for the final at Croke Park, which Mr Blake said “has had a knock-on effect with tickets also”.

He said that the vast majority of tickets will be issued to clubs within Cork and Limerick.

He said there will also be tickets needed for players, management, sponsors, and those involved in various boards, but he hopes “that everyone who deserves a ticket will be inside in Croke Park come 3.30pm on All- Ireland final day”.

He said people can still apply for tickets via email.

“We just don’t want the cheques coming in for transparency and good governance,” he said.

He said that if a person is successful in getting a pair of tickets they will receive a link to buy their ticket and can use their smartphone and print the ticket to be produced on the day.