England’s Euro 2012 Farce……
……and UEFA ticket mystery!?
Look we all know England has no manager, and if that is not a great big shot in the foot before we even leave these shores, there are plenty more bullets left in the gun to make sure the assassination is completed, without a ball being kicked.
For what ever reason right or wrong Capello was manipulated into a position which the world and his wife would know the outcome, it was all in all a manufactured sacking. Capello walks away with a healthy pay packet for finishing early and the FA think they have pulled a master stroke but are now left scratching their rears on how it went all wrong.
Their dream man in Harry, cleared his name in the high court and maybe then had other thoughts on if he really wanted the England job, as Tottenham were then going great guns in 3rd place in the PL. Well six weeks or so later, still no manger and the list of excuses and contradictions coming out of Soho Sq are in line with Apples iPod production (record breaking).
Urgent became, no knee jerk, making the right appointment, became parachuting in, at the end of the season and there is no panic. So to cover their incompetence the FA did say that the manager should really be English… err British, Ummm from these shores, and then come up with a short list of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho….. excuse me fellas have you check their passports?
So Tottenham’s form has faltered, Harry is in doubt, and Levy I suspect is asking for a world record compensation package.
Back-up man Stuart Pearce has already ruled himself out twice by saying he’s not up to the job of full time England manager but is taking care of the Olympic GB team. Wonder what the Olympic committee is thinking? Not good enough for England, but good enough for the Olympics!
So let’s get onto the one obvious clanger, that even Michael Crawford in “Some mother’s do have em” would not have made, to England’s location for the competition, being based in Krakow Poland at a 4th Division club.
The facilities (5th December 2011) which resembled a demolition site, with a waterlogged problem pitch that a pub team would object too, all of this has been promised to be renovated to a desired standard, by April this year… that’s in 8 days time! with 50% costs coming from the FA!…. feck me we are funding other countries teams, when so many of our professional and part-time teams are screaming out for additional funding.
Anyway even if the facilities are ready in time, there is no facility to train in private so yet more security, fencing, or shielding is required so as other teams can’t spy on the on the England training camps. The only acceptable thing is the facility is 30 minutes from England’s Krakow hotel.
Why on earth could the FA not find a place in the Ukraine last year after the draw? Yes we all know the better places would be booked by other teams FA’s , with everyone hedging their bets on locations, but we could have taken the option of another team who would not use it due to their draw elsewhere.
So Team England has 930 miles each way to play in Donetsk twice and 530 each way to Kiev, which mean more flights a day or so before the game, more hotels closer to the event, more packing/ unpacking and changing before each game. The last thing you want is to spend time sitting at airports, checking in, doing all the waiting around, then shuttle bus (ok luxury coach) to yet another hotel in the city that you play the match to train on the pitch for a few hours in the evening, and spend the rest of the time at a hotel with naff all to do……. I’m not sure if the FA has decided if this is a competition or a holiday tour of Poland and the Ukraine?……… Planning on how to make the job harder the FA started looking in August 2010 and came up with this as the best option! Thank god they are not travel agents is all I can say.
Part of England’s build up under Capello was to go to Marbella for 5/6 days and train at the Paradise Football and sports complex…. Nice I’m sure, but this does indicate that maybe someone is not that confident in the Poland training camp. Given that the PL football season does not finish Sunday 13th May and this year the FA Cup final ( normally the season show piece finale is on the 5th of May, the same day as many PL games) the traditional kick off time from 3pm is now 5.30 pm….(what else are messing about with?)…… so all in all England have 3 weeks from the end of the season, to install a new manager, I assume take the training in Marbella for a week, and fly of to training camp 930 miles away from their first game and prepare for the second most important competition in International football!….. no wonder the FA’s code of conduct is to be brought in after the Euro Championship, as the whole bloody lot of them would fail it now!
Can we now look at UEFA wonderful ticket availability for supporters, we get 8,000 tickets for each match England play, (average is 9300 per competing team per match) as normal England is likely to be one of the best supported teams,(outside the joint hosts) and whilst Poland /Ukraine are Eastern Europe, there are many budget options to get there so the expected 15,000 even in these difficult times is likely if not more, but UEFA have given those extra tickets to sponsors and corporate guests.
There are around 1.4 million tickets for the Euro finals….( numbers are not exact just a guide)
* Around 550,000 are sold via the EUFA website (lottery system same as before)
* Competing teams get around 450,000 ( ave 9,300 each official tickets per game)
* Host city residents 56,000 (2,000 per game) that’s not amazing
* Tickets sold with Holiday packages 30,000 ( highly inflated prices no doubt)
However the following list is one that causes concerns….
** Sponsors around 200,000 ( Of course they stump up the big money so get the best seats 7,500 per game!!! close to competing nations share)
** Corporate hospitality 60,000 (Guests of the UEFA 2,000 per game nice to impress so many future sponsors or friends of friends who help UEFA)
** VIP Freebies 30,000 (We all like a freebie, but something extra to grease the wheels not covered by anything else)
** UEFA’s Football Family 40,000 ( Having surfed the net I’m still not sure what the football family is all about. Its all very scotch mist like, very hard to pin down on who will get these tickets)
In short 12,200 per game (25% capacity) are for those who are involved directly with UEFA on something or other! I’m applying to supply bog roll for the next tournament as there appears to be rather a lot of bull flying around.
Net result: less tickets for genuine football fans ( registered with their own nation’s supporters clubs) and more tickets that can enter the ” Black Market”….. when are the organisers going to stamp out on illegal trafficking of tickets.
Every ticket issued must have a face value price, no £00.00 or E00.00 ticket issues, each ticket issued with its own unique number, tracking to its issued source, being that where it came from, being that a nation’s allocation or and individual or company.
Like always many fans are going to get ripped off, and UEFA continue to ignore the situation.
Transparent……. of course it’s as clear as an old London pea soup fog!
Posted by Voltaire