£350 AND RISING - THE PRICE OF FOOTBALL’S INCOMPETENCE

25-05-2007

Tickets for West Bromwich Albion’s play-off final at Wembley on Monday are being offered for sale at £350 on the internet today. Proof - along with the Champions League fiasco - that the people in charge of football couldn’t run a bath.

Both the Baggies and Derby were allocated just 33,000 places each in the 90,000 stadium - well short of demand, making the game a paradise for those who want to cash in on the misfortune of others.

The government recently discussed imposing further legal restrictions on touts, but as we suggested at the time, if events organisers organised the supply of tickets properly, these scumbags simply couldn’t flourish.

Albion’s distribution system - whereby season tickets holders were guaranteed a pair apiece and club members were next in the queue - couldn’t satisfy everybody, but at least had a basic fairness about it.

Those who’ve missed out shouldn’t turn their anger on the club, but at Wembley Stadium and its owners the FA who are prepared to see thousands of seats go unsold even though many genuine fans will miss out.

The vacancies will be in the corporate areas - sold as Club Wembley - and while the official reason is maintaining segregation, The Stirrer simply doesn’t believe it; it’s all about maintaining a pristine environment for the prawn sandwich eaters who have their own dedicated tier of the stadium.

Meanwhile, other suits in seats are flogging off their scarce tickets at a premium.

On this, the government - which gave £20 million of our dosh to help rebuild the stadium - is of course silent.

For a sport which is forever telling us that it’s now a “business”, football has a remarkable record of pissing-off its customers.

Want more proof? Just look at Wednesday’s Champions League Final when Liverpool fans with genuine tickets were denied entry to the match because there were so many forgeries.

Although the tickets had bar codes, someone forgot to scan them, which allowed the fakers through.

I never thought I’d heard myself say it, but in this company the touts - who at least direct tickets to those who really want them - look like the good guys.

For previous discussions of touting on The Stirrer click here

http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/dm0903071.html and here

http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/ag1907061.html

Who’s responsible for the Baggies touting fiasco. Leave a comment on our Message Board.