February 21 – UEFA have been forced to apologise to hundreds of fans after a technical error meant tickets for Euro 2020 that should not have been on sale ended up being cancelled after being paid for.
A new batch of tickets for this summer’s tournament was made available on Wednesday for fans unsuccessful in the initial ballots. But many who were successful in the second tranche were handed more disappointment hours later when they were told their transactions were invalid.
“Due to a technical error, for a short period of time, a small number of tickets which were not for sale, were made available for purchase,” said a UEFA spokesperson.
“This error was quickly identified and those fans who had inadvertently purchased tickets received a cancellation email and no charge was made to their credit cards.”
“UEFA would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Many fans had reportedly also booked travel and accommodation as a result of the emails they received from UEFA which featured links to official partner websites.
Some were distinctly non-plussed.
The BBC quoted one fan, James Lofthouse, as saying he thought he had four tickets for England’s match with the Czech Republic on Tuesday June 23 and two for the game with one of the play-off winners – which could be Scotland – on Friday June 19.
He said he spent 90 minutes in an online queue on the UEFA website before spending £700 on six tickets.
“I then got together with my friends to book hotels for London,” he said. “I went for a non-refundable deal because I didn’t think there was any reason the tickets would be cancelled. That was £200 that left my account that I won’t get back. There was no apology in the email and that is very, very poor.”
Another fan, Tom Lowman, thought he had tickets for him and his son to watch the Group F fixture between Germany and Portugal in Munich on Saturday June 20.
He then bought non-refundable return flights from Manchester for £510, before receiving an email hours later to say the match tickets had been cancelled.
“The real frustration is that there is no real comeback. You go on UEFA’s website and there is no way of getting in contact with anybody,” he was quoted as saying.
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