Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:38 pm
West Ham United
Fury over tickets for West Ham United vs Cardiff City match
By Paul Christian, Reporter
Friday, August 5, 2011
4:41 PM
HUNDREDS of weary and disgruntled fans of Cardiff City are being forced to trek to Times Territory to collect matchday tickets.
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Championship side The Bluebirds have a fearsome reputation for football hooliganism, and as a result of their history of Football Factory-style violence, next weekend’s season opener with West Ham United has been declared a ‘bubble match’ – one that away fans can only attend by travelling on official coaches.
That means Cardiff followers will have to head to South Mimms Service Station to collect tickets for the game from Metropolitan Police officers – a move that has gained a furious response from Bluebirds supporters.
Fans said the club has been allocated just 1,000 tickets for the August 7 game, being held at West Ham.
And, under the security measures, they would have to meet at Cardiff City’s ground at around 5am before heading to South Mimms, where their coaches would be searched and tickets allocated, so they could make the 1pm kick-off at Upton Park, famous for terrace song I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.
Even London-based Cardiff supporters would have to first travel to South Mimms.
One fan wrote on an online Cardiff City fans’ forum: “Maybe we should boycott the away end an everyone try an get tickets in the home end an make sure they know that cardiff are trying to buy tickets for the home end instead!!... that will give them a real headache!! ha [sic].”
Focusing on the alleged phone hacking and police bribery scandal engulfing the force, a Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Potters Bar Edition: “We’re dealing with a big news story at the moment and we can’t divert any time to other smaller stories.”
He added: “The last time we had similar trouble between West Ham and Cardiff was in 2007 and we didn’t discuss it until a week before the match.”
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1 comments
But Cardiff... Don't have any fans ?!!
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Imogen Mann
Friday, August 5, 2011
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