3000 brave England fans head to near-certain death in Ukraine
SO. Why are just 3,000 England fans heading to Ukraine to watch England play in the Euro 2012 football tournament?
It’s the Sun’s font-page story – and the Sun’s Nick Parker knows the answer in his “EXCLUSIVE SUN INVESTIGATION”:
Supporters have been put off by drab host cities, the threat from bigoted local thugs and the unfancied prospects of Theo Walcott and Co.
This latest Sun “EXCLUSIVE” follows yesterday front-page “EXCLUSIVE” in which the Sun invited us to wonder if Lionel Messi, the Barcelona wonder, was a racist. Only, it wasn’t an exclusive at all. The Sun had merely read about Royston Drenthe’s claims of Messi calling him a “negro” on the Mail’s website, which had most likely taken the story – also without giving any credit – from Dutch website Nu.nl who had read the accusation in Dutch magazine Helden.
So. Here’s to a new Sun front-page exclusive.
Maybe the stay away fans have been reading the Sun, which has introduced its readers to the marvels of Ukraine with such headlines as:
FANS are under threat of being permanently deafened by cops – May 8, 2012
Supporters’ campsite is grim wasteland – May 8, 2012
Fans scarier than terrorists at Euro 2012 – May 7, 2012
Anarchy in the Ukraine ‘Nazi’ militia train yobs to fight our fans – April 29, 2012
News is that when England play in Donetsk’s 52,000 capacity Donbass Arena “a mere” 2,000 England supporters will be there to watch. Given the headline from the Sun you may look at the figure and asks, “Why so many?”
The Sun’s “investigation” fails to note that hotel prices have rocketed. A room at Kiev’s Ibis hotel is yours for £550 a night. When England are not in town the same room costs…£49.
And you know that Sun “investigation” into ticket sales? Well, we investigated as well. All the media did. We all heard assistant Chief Constable of South Yorkshire police Andy Holt, who is working with the hosts during the tournament, say:
“There is a 9,000-ticket allocation for England in the group stages but at the moment we think 3,000 (travelling fans) is about as many as we are going to get.”
Such are the facts.
Posted: 11th, May 2012 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
