Derg NI fans cry foul over no tickets

LOCAL Northern Ireland football fans are crying foul over the allocation of tickets for this evening’s (Thursday) crunch Euro 2020 play-off final at The National Stadium.

Due to current Covid protocols ticket numbers have been restricted to 1060 for the winner-takes-all Euro decider against Slovakia.

Suffice to say tickets were always going to be like hen’s teeth but members of the Castlederg, Omagh and Fintona NI Supporters Clubs were left gobsmacked and angered on Tuesday morning when they learned that between them they hadn’t be allocated a single ticket.

In normal circumstances the three clubs would have at least 120 fans attending a Northern Ireland home game and needless to say they are far from happy that their requests appear to have been totally ignored.

Aaron Burke, a leading member of the Fintona club, said that local fans were feeling extremely frustrated their  clubs wouldn’t be represented at the game.

“Nobody is very happy as you would understand,” he said.

“We (Fintona) expected to get at least one or two and then hold a lottery within the club.

“It’s hard not to think it’s a case of the same old story, West of the Bann, postcode, etc, etc

“Out of 120-130 block bookers we don’t get a single ticket, what other conclusions are people expected to come to.”

Castlederg club member Sam Dennison said there was a lot of frustration around the fact that local supporters club members wouldn’t be able to attend the biggest game at the South Belfast venue in years.

“The Derg boys were hoping for 20 tickets and they knew themselves they would probably get no where near that,” he said.

“There is no doubt that a lot of local fans have been left bitterly disappointed,” he said.

FULL STORY IN TODAY’S STRABANE CHRONICLE