uefa are lying

UEFA are tell lies.

uefa.com

"During online ticket sales undertaken by Nürnberg for Thursday's game, a bug in the system enabled some English supporters to buy tickets allocated in the Nürnberg fans' sectors. Consequently, following consultation with the police, Nürnberg decided to withdraw those applications and inform those online buyers that their online reservations were no longer applicable."

"Bug in the system"? These are absolutely despicable lies. If this goes off tonight 'cause of their screw-up it is on record that Evertonians applied for those tickets in good faith. I know people who phoned up to purchase the tickets and specifically asked if it was okay to be in the home area and Nuremberg told them it would be no problem. UEFA re-classified the game as high risk and then the Germans have been ringing round apologising profusely for the mess up and saying it's out of their hands.

It is the responsibility of the blues to behave themselves but basically they've had the piss taken out of them. This mess is entirely of someone else's making. Those fans have been cheerfully sold tickets, went off and paid for flights and accommodation and at the 11th hour being told their tickets won't be honoured.

Bill Kenwright issued a fairly commendable statement but ultimately what can be done.

“Everyone at Goodison Park is unhappy at this situation on behalf of our supporters – from David and the team, to the Board of Directors and staff.

“We understand how much this football club means to Evertonians and consequently how important a European game is to them.

“We knew when our small allocation was sold out that demand for tickets would continue to be huge for the game in Nurnberg.

“We absolutely share and accept the frustrations that the fans feel having supposedly purchased tickets direct from the club in Germany but sadly there is nothing we can do about the decision made by the authorities.

“We can only ask our fans that wherever they watch the match, they continue to be the great ambassadors of this football club that they have always been.”

One side issue is whether Everton took the maximum allocation of tickets when they knew demand would be high. This would have negated the need for decent honest fans to try and get tickets in amongst the home fans. The club insist they did...It'd be interesting to see if this is confirmed by Nürnberg. Ultimately this will lead to an angry potentially inflammatory situation in Nuremburg and a few German touts making an absolutely fortune. Well done UEFA.