Supporters must attend at least 60% of league and championship games in order to qualify for a guaranteed opportunity to purchase an All-Ireland final ticket should their county team reach that stage.

According to the GAA, 10 scanners were in operation in Tralee “and the data from these scanners was successfully uploaded to the ticketing system after the fixture”.

But Milltown-Castlemaine secretary Colin O’Grady was among several supporters who told Radio Kerry his season ticket account didn't reflect his attendance at the game, despite having it scanned upon entry.

Another Kerry follower, Karen McAuliffe, claimed that the scan of her eight-year-old son’s season ticket did not confirm he was at the game. The GAA informed her that as a result of that it would not be included in his attendance record.

“Hardly gonna go to match and let an 8yr old at home,” she posted on Twitter. She highlighted that both she and her son entered the grounds via the same gate but only her season ticket registered her as being at the game afterwards.

O’Grady, who revealed his was one of two season tickets of 10 he has for family and friends, yesterday stated he declined the offer of a refund from the GAA as it missed the point. He said he had experienced a similar situation when his card was not properly scanned in Croke Park for an All-Ireland SFC quarter-final a number of years back. O’Grady revealed some other fans have even resorted to taking photographs of themselves under scoreboards at games to prove they were at them.

However, the GAA statement to the Irish Examiner said no such evidence of attendance is admissible

It read: “The terms and conditions of the GAA Season Ticket state: ‘Only two means of attendance verification will be used in relation to the GAA Season Ticket. Namely the scanners and/or the season ticket holder lists, which can manually record attendance at a venue’. The manual lists would only be used in exceptional circumstances such as a supporter arriving to the ground having lost their season ticket card etc.

“There are over 24,000 Season Ticket holders and so it is not remotely feasible to use social media or photographs to verify attendance at a fixture. This is why we have scanners in operation and why we are as thorough as possible prior to fixtures. This includes, but is not limited to, the correct set up, testing and charging of all scanners, the presence of Season Ticket holder lists at the designated turnstiles, the briefing of all scanning personnel before stiles open and, in some cases, the presence of a GAA Ticket Office staff member also.” The only recourse for supporters who have such issues is via email.

The GAA have highlighted season ticket holders can submit an attendance query to seasontickets@gaa.ie from the account holders’ email address no later than 10 days after the fixture in question.