Hundreds hit by Everton tickets 'shambles'

Sep 21 2007 by Sarah Gaffney, Liverpool Daily Post

HUNDREDS of Everton fans missed the start of the club’s UEFA cup tie last night, after their tickets apparently got lost in the post.

Around 2,000 fans were forced to queue outside Goodison Park after they were told to collect replacement tickets at the ground.

Several hundred were still locked out 20 minutes after a delayed 8.25pm kick-off against Ukrainians Metalist Kharkiv, ordered by safety officials and police.

Everton will today be demanding answers from Royal Mail as to what went wrong with the tickets, which the club said were posted first class on Monday.

But some fans criticised the operation at the stadium gates.

It was not until ten minutes before half time that a Tannoy announcement told fans they could go straight to the turnstiles if they had proof of purchase.

One fan, Leonard Lee, had travelled with his ten-year-old son from Blackpool, and was furious they were left waiting for so long.

“I bought my tickets online last week, it took me four hours to get through to the club when they hadn’t come and they said the post office hadn’t delivered them.

“They delayed the game half an hour but we’re still outside.

“I brought my son for a UEFA game and he can’t get in.

“They take our money and just sod the fans. They say it’s a people’s club and they cant get the tickets out to the people.”

Stephen Dodd, 29 who lives near Chester, queued in the ticket line which was patrolled by mounted police for over 45 minutes.

“Apparently there’s 1,500 tickets gone missing but there’s been no notifications from the club,” he said. “The only announcements have been telling us to keep calm, we don't know what time we will be getting them or anything.

“There was no notification before we came to game on the radio. It’s been a shambles.” And supporter Danny Bailey from Wigan said after an hour of waiting: “It’s chaos. It’s so slow. There’s only two booths open for tickets, its pathetic. If we don’t end up getting tickets do we get a refund for them?”

Everton’s head of PR, Ian Ross, last night said the club would be holding talks with Royal Mail.

The tickets were ordered via a remote service and the club said they “clearly” should have been delivered to fans the next day.

He said due to the amount of fans involved, reissuing tickets before kick-off was a time-consuming process.

“Everton will be holding talks with officials from Royal Mail first thing on Friday morning to establish the circumstances behind what was a most regrettable – but unavoidable – situation,” he said. “We need to know precisely what happened and once we have established all the salient facts we will let our supporters have them,” he said.

“Safety is always our primary concern and whilst it was hugely regrettable that we had to put back the kick-off, we had to be absolutely certain that everyone got into the stadium safely.”

Merseyside Police said: “The decision was taken by safety officers, and supported by Merseyside Police, to put the game back from 8pm to 8.25pm due to large numbers of Everton supporters, approximately 2,000, trying to get into the ground at 8pm.” The game ended 1-1.

No-one from Royal Mail was available to comment.