northernspirit
Well-Known Member
Im sure some of you have read the fox sports story re: iraq denying our boys access to the stadium for training and the match balls but this issue i find is quite disgusting and has to be publically stated everywhere possible.
one of my mates flew all the way from cairns to the middle east to cheer on his beloved socceroos and this is the post he put on my forum (kickoff.com.au).
it stinks of bad sportsmanship bordering on corruption and fifa must be made to act on it, it is unacceptable and has really p!ssed me off to be honest
from chris from cairns:
Hi Guys, this is an emotive post about our experience in Dubai today... it will be long and descriptive, but needs to be publically stated. We are strategizing as we speak (at 1230am) about our options before the game.
We (me, Ant, Pablo and Brendon 'WazzaLeeds [GGA]) decided to go out to Al Rashid stadium at 5pm today to do a reconnancence of the ground, talk to stadium officials etc about possibilities of getting tickets. Unbeknowns to us the Australian team was having a closed training session there at 5.30, so we were fortunate enough to be allowed to stay there during this training sesh whilst all others were evicted (which in itself was a great experience). We spoke to several Aus officials and Aus and UAE media about our dilema of getting tickets for this game. The low down was that the Iraq FA were being recalcitrant about all things in realtion to this fixture.
Anyway, the Aust team manager spoke to the officials of the Al Ahli Club (the team which runs the Al Rashid stadium) and after an hour or so these officials said thay had arranged tickets for us, and an Iraqi official will have them here in half an hour. Of course we were ecstatic and the SBS crew outside decided to interview us about what this 'pilgramage' meant to us.
So far, so good!
The Iraqi official who was selling tickets to iraqi fans said the Australian tickets were about to arrive. He was sellling tickets to the Iraqi's for 20 dirham ($7 ish) and 50 dirham ($18ish). Finally when the Australian tickets arrived he said, "$100 US"... they were official away supporter's tickets with $100 (360 dirham) printed on the ticket!
After much (and kudos to Pablo for his patience and negotiation) to-ing and fro-ing, it was established that the Iraqi official was not going to budge from this' official' rate. Many UAE Arab persons were there and to their credit, some tried to buy the tickets for us at Iraqi rates, but the Iraqi official got wind of this and would not allow it.
Pablo tracked down the SBS crew again and did another interview about the unfairness of this situation, and also was interviewed by the local UAE press. The Al Alhi club stadium officials also tried to intervene with now success, and were terribly apologetic and sympathetic to us. We finally got a hold of one of the heads of the Iraqi FA and he first promised us 50 free tickets, but reneged after we asked for them. He then went on to say that Australian IRaqi's had to pay $45 in Brisbane which we informed him was the price everyone paid, and his final comment was, "You are from Australia so you are rich". Another Iraqi official told us that they were pricing the tickets for Australia so high, so the stadium can be full of Iraq supporters only.
We spent lmost 5 hours at the stadium today, and made a pact we would not be a party to this extortion. We have plan B, C, D and E tomorrow (E being paying the $100 US) but we plan to email media tonight
one of my mates flew all the way from cairns to the middle east to cheer on his beloved socceroos and this is the post he put on my forum (kickoff.com.au).
it stinks of bad sportsmanship bordering on corruption and fifa must be made to act on it, it is unacceptable and has really p!ssed me off to be honest
from chris from cairns:
Hi Guys, this is an emotive post about our experience in Dubai today... it will be long and descriptive, but needs to be publically stated. We are strategizing as we speak (at 1230am) about our options before the game.
We (me, Ant, Pablo and Brendon 'WazzaLeeds [GGA]) decided to go out to Al Rashid stadium at 5pm today to do a reconnancence of the ground, talk to stadium officials etc about possibilities of getting tickets. Unbeknowns to us the Australian team was having a closed training session there at 5.30, so we were fortunate enough to be allowed to stay there during this training sesh whilst all others were evicted (which in itself was a great experience). We spoke to several Aus officials and Aus and UAE media about our dilema of getting tickets for this game. The low down was that the Iraq FA were being recalcitrant about all things in realtion to this fixture.
Anyway, the Aust team manager spoke to the officials of the Al Ahli Club (the team which runs the Al Rashid stadium) and after an hour or so these officials said thay had arranged tickets for us, and an Iraqi official will have them here in half an hour. Of course we were ecstatic and the SBS crew outside decided to interview us about what this 'pilgramage' meant to us.
So far, so good!
The Iraqi official who was selling tickets to iraqi fans said the Australian tickets were about to arrive. He was sellling tickets to the Iraqi's for 20 dirham ($7 ish) and 50 dirham ($18ish). Finally when the Australian tickets arrived he said, "$100 US"... they were official away supporter's tickets with $100 (360 dirham) printed on the ticket!
After much (and kudos to Pablo for his patience and negotiation) to-ing and fro-ing, it was established that the Iraqi official was not going to budge from this' official' rate. Many UAE Arab persons were there and to their credit, some tried to buy the tickets for us at Iraqi rates, but the Iraqi official got wind of this and would not allow it.
Pablo tracked down the SBS crew again and did another interview about the unfairness of this situation, and also was interviewed by the local UAE press. The Al Alhi club stadium officials also tried to intervene with now success, and were terribly apologetic and sympathetic to us. We finally got a hold of one of the heads of the Iraqi FA and he first promised us 50 free tickets, but reneged after we asked for them. He then went on to say that Australian IRaqi's had to pay $45 in Brisbane which we informed him was the price everyone paid, and his final comment was, "You are from Australia so you are rich". Another Iraqi official told us that they were pricing the tickets for Australia so high, so the stadium can be full of Iraq supporters only.
We spent lmost 5 hours at the stadium today, and made a pact we would not be a party to this extortion. We have plan B, C, D and E tomorrow (E being paying the $100 US) but we plan to email media tonight
