Tickets available at Swiss match last week - touts
went to landsdowne with a friend last wednesday in search of tickets.
met a lad (english accent- in irish colours) with 2 others (irish) who had 12 tickets to sell for the swiss game outside jurys :eek: .
he explained that he had them for mates coming over from england to watch the game, and due to their plane being delayed they would be unable to get to landsdowne on time. this was at about 18:00
the tickets were all together and were for the south bucket. he said he would sell them at €60 each (€30 over face value).
though i am normally against paying anything over face value, we agreed to buy 2 . why? well...he reckoned it'd be some compensation for the london mates in the airport (which i sympathised), also allayed to the fact that they were together and that i would be sorted with considerable time to relax before the game i couldnt resist.
2 other lads near us also bought 1 each.
we told him we may take another (needed to get more money from atm and phone a mate). however the lad was panicy....and just then, quick as a flash a tout sniffed in, and proceeded to part €470 for the remaining 8 tickets. while the deal was being struck i told him several times not to do it, that he was selling to a scumbag tout and he would get genuine buyers in the matter of minutes. this done to no avail....the tout couldnt believe his luck.
when i did take my seat (great position as a matter of fact) the 8 seats to my right were empty.....just before kickoff 8 no. yanks walk in and took up the seats....they wouldnt tell me how much they paid....in fact they didnt know much about the game either :mad: ...they had heard of a player called duff and enquired of his whereabouts :eek: . they spent more time reading their programmes, staring at us chanting and fitting on their free t-shirts than watching the game....
i dont know.....i hadnt really thought about it until now as i was still getting over the disapointment of the game.....i accept that the forementioned yanks can do what they want when they get in, but what i cannot understand is how anyone in their right mind ( and a supposed irish fan) can sell tickets to touts while others are desperate for tickets...it ****es me off altogther....
btw: apoligies if it was any of you formites that got delayed in the airport for the game - and thanks for the tickets!!.... but in future, let someone else with a stronger character be in charge of dispersing tickets in such circumstances
rant over