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How have ESTC not got the whole allocation for Euros?

Forgive me for being naive here, but how do ESTC get 25% of their ticket allocation for 25% capacity?

Surely ESTC should take preference over General Sale?  So, if there are 10,000 tickets available after the "Football Family" then the entirety should be awarded to ESTC members.

We have put the miles in over the years to earn them, we even sat through the dross that was the "Rooney Special" USA game to earn caps.

Yet, we will potentially lose our seats to someone who hasn't been to any games but just happened to log on to their computer at the right time and got awarded them through the UEFA General Sale.

Doesn't make sense to me at all.

47 Replies

  • Thomas Walker
    You're fair in your assumption Nick. Of the 12000 tickets allocated to the England Supporters Travel Club for the group Wembley games I think all should be retained, and those ESTC members who got their tickets through UEFA should also retain theirs. There are only around 17000 of us and we should have been prioritised. But "should" is the operative word. UEFA like always will look after UEFA - so the "Suits" will take priority. They're not much better than those who tried to form the ESL.
    It was mentioned that Scotland would get 3600 tickets for the England game, so I presume that's what we'll get too. Absolutely woeful. I don't expect to get anything in the re-ballot, and for the original tournament I had tickets for the 3 group games and the semi. For this years I've paid out already on hotels and travel - I doubt I'll be able to get any refunds and I suspect a lot of others will be in the same position. I've raised another thread about a benevolent fund. With the English FA being the richest in the world I hope there'll act on it, but we'll have to wait and see...All the best for getting a ticket
  • Ivan Rutherford
    Our initial allocation for the group games were like 12k.

    How can we have lost any of that? It's half of the allocation that we're now allowed.

    Who is being prioritised over the ESTC?
  • Nick White

    In reply to Thomas Walker:

    The tickets that we buy through our FA are still going through UEFA, so UEFA still get their money from us.

    Just can't fathom how our FA hasn't out their foot down and insisted on the whole allocation instead of just 25%. We have travelled all over Europe and been to every single Wembley game since 2018 and yet we can still miss out on tickets to someone who hasn't been to a single game? It's madness.

    Like you; we have flights and hotels booked all over Europe that we have to write off, but at least knowing we could watch games at Wembley was a little compensation. To now possibly take that away from us and have those tickets go elsewhere is outrageous.

    Same for you on the ticket mate. Hope true fans get rewarded in all of this.
  • Nick White

    In reply to Ivan Rutherford:

    We get 25% of our initial allocation. UEFA are also giving 25% allocation to people who just entered their General Sale ballot a year ago.

    So thos people are getting an allocation of tickets prioritised over the rest of the ESTC who miss out now.
  • Andrew McCarthy
    Despite it being at Wembley, it isn't a "home" game for us, so we're allocated tickets the same way we would be for any other tournament game abroad
  • Ivan Rutherford

    In reply to Nick White:

    I don't understand how the FA have allowed that! we pay an annual membership fee and pay to follow the team and as per usual it counts for nothing!
  • Barry Pounder

    In reply to Andrew McCarthy:

    Correct Andrew..
  • Nick White

    In reply to Andrew McCarthy:

    Absolutely get that, but even if this was Russia or France, or Qatar you would still expect that if there is a decreased allocation then supporters clubs would get preference over general sale, not parity.
  • Ian Dale
    Trying to be philosophical about this. Various ways this could have panned out.

    1. No matches in England
    2. No fans in stadium
    3. In a random ballot with general sale buyers
    4. Reduced allocation, done on caps
    5. Original allocation

    We've got 4 which is not the best outcome but not the worst by a long way.
  • James Collinson

    In reply to Andrew McCarthy:

    Unfortunately so. I get the frustrating nature of it but the FA only ever had a percentage of the total match tickets for the allocation at hand. It was expected to be 90k. Now it’s reduced to 25% the capacity is 22.5k so the stadium would be sold as per those rules. If it had been that capacity to start with this would have been all we would have had.
    It’s painful and frustrating that the world is still totally fecked and in an ideal world UEFA “football is for the fans” people should prioritise the supporters groups but the fact is they’ve already sold those tickets to people who chances their arms in the numerous ballots and have just as much of a responsibility to them as they do to us. That and let’s be honest they don’t give a damn about any of us anyway it’s all about the money for them.
    The FA have no real say here and by pushing for this risk the games being taken elsewhere anyway. They will however push for as many tickets as they can get for us and have always endeavoured to do this.
  • Nick White

    In reply to James Collinson:

    Yeah, fair play pal. Just pretty devastating to end up spending all that money over 2 years, planning your whole year around this tournament and then ending up in that 20% bracket of the 70/20/10 after having tickets for every England game.

    What you say makes sense though mate. Doesn't make it any easier like, but it makes complete sense.
  • David Lilley
    Before we throw too many brickbats at UEFA, consider this. They sent the Dublin group matches to St Petersburg. They could very easily have sent the Dublin R16 somewhere on continental Europe too. There would have been a good reason not to send it to London. England already has a potential 5 matches out of 7 in their 'home' stadium, giving us an advantage over the other teams. We are seeded to play in the Dublin R16 if we win the group. Why should UEFA give England a further advantage ? I believe they gave this match to London as a reward for the instant and furious protests by fans, FA suits and UK politicians against the Franchise League coup d'etat. This is a decent reward.
  • Ian Dale

    In reply to David Lilley:

    Will be interesting to see the EF allocation for the R16 if it's at Wembley. By rights should be the same as the Group games, not a generic R16 allocation based on smallest stadium being used which would be outrageous.
  • George Smith

    In reply to Nick White:

    Same boat mate. Had tickets to all the Wembley games and been planning trip (from US where I now live) for two years and now I'm in the 10% bracket so only got a 3% chance of getting to keep ticket to any of the matches. Whereas other tickets friends got in the general sale they have a 25% chance of keeping. Only solace is that hopefully, capacities get increased and ESTC (and especially people whos tickets got cancelled) gets priority BUT based on how UEFA doing things now I cant see that happening... so best case we get a few thousand extra tickets which most likely would go to higher cappers than me...
  • Elizabeth Coulter
    Am I right in thinking that, with 9 caps, my chances of getting anything in the reballot are basically zero?
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