Rangers fans pay £600 in scramble for cup tickets

Local & National

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

By Matthew McCreary

Rangers fans hoping to clinch a ticket for tomorrow night's big UEFA Cup Final match could be left facing a last minute scramble to avoid disappointment.

Around 5,000 local Rangers supporters are expected to make their way to Manchester for the football highlight of the year when their club takes on Russian team Zenit St Petersburg at the City of Manchester Stadium.

And with 100,000 applications for tickets against the comparatively meagre 13,000 allocation for the club, many of those travelling may be unable to make it into the ground.

Others have paid over the odds for the prized tickets.

"I paid £600 for mine," said Thomas Mathers, secretary of Ardoyne Rangers Supporters Club.

"I got another three, two of them for £600 and one for £500. We're picking them up over there from friends.

"It's the way UEFA do it, they sell the tickets three months before the match.

"All that does is lead to touting, because if Rangers hadn't got through I'd have been stuck with tickets for some other teams and I'd have had to sell them."

Despite the difficulties, Mr Mathers said the dozens of supporters travelling over in his party are looking forward to the game.

"I gave my mate his ticket and he was physically crying he was so overjoyed," he said.

"We've been following Rangers for 25 years and haven't missed a match.

"But there are people who haven't missed a match for five or six years, season ticket holders, who never got a ticket. It's out of order."

Jim Branagh, chairman of the 1st Glengormley Loyal RSC, said two thirds of the 30 or so supporters from his club will not have tickets when they travel over for the game.

Such is the desire to be in Manchester, tickets or not, that demand for flights and ferries has also been high.

"Most of the flights have been booked from before Rangers went through, " Mr Branagh said.

"I've heard of people not being able to get flights, some are flying into places like Leeds."

The search for UEFA final tickets has also extended to the Houses of Parliament, where East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell, a member of the Westminster Parliamentary Rangers Supporters Club, has been forced to join the queue.

"The hunt is on, wide and far, but so far the search has yielded nothing," he said.

Mr Campbell is not the only DUP member to sign up to the club, which also boasts former Northern Ireland Office minister Adam Ingram as chairman.

"The Westminster club was set up a couple of months ago and I've managed to recruit all my party colleagues, including the Big Man himself, the Robinsons and Willie McCrea," said Mr Campbell.