As our regular site visitors know we are usually reluctant to join in the kind of catcalls against the club you can sometimes hear elsewhere. We operate on the principle that running a football club is hard enough without us adding to the background noise.

However the way the club has dealt with the issue of tickets for the home European match versus Villareal can only be described as unfair and completely wrong. We have been absolutely inundated with complaints and we have to say this is one occasion when we go along with the doom merchants.

The date of the draw was known to everyone for months. There was no reason whatever why a better method of distributing tickets could not have been decided and publicised weeks ago. Undated tickets could even have been issued for the tie with a reserve made for visiting supporters. The club could even have gotten some useful public relations brownie points out of it. Instead the free-for-all of a general sale was sprung at the last moment with barely two days notice.

To add insult to injury multiple purchases were allowed during the box office sale – so there could be no argument that the method adopted allowed the maximum number of fans to get tickets. What could be more guaranteed to create a black market for tickets and a feeding frenzy for spivs? They were out in force, paying kids a fiver to stand in the queue to get 6 more for them. They were also buying tickets from fans who had bought their allocation of 6. Also, internet purchases inevitably led to clogged websites and lost opportunities to buy.

And then there’s the matter of season ticket holders. After spending their hard-earned readies to get themselves into pole position for our first European adventure in ten years they find themselves pushed into a general scramble.

In defence of this a statement by Everton's C.E.O. says: "what we always do at this football club is listen to our supporters. Throughout the course of the day we were contacted by many season ticket holders who were concerned that they might not be able to purchase a ticket for this most significant of games."

Too late Mister Wyness. You should have listened to the fans before this happened. Plenty of season ticket holders contacted the club with their concerns before the tickets were put on sale. The club say that 12,000 tickets have already been sold. Many of those seats will be season ticket holders seats. They deserved better than this after being sorely tried for so many seasons, then when we finally manage what we all wanted they find they have been simply pushed aside. What price loyalty after all this?

There can be no excuses for this mess and the club shouldn’t try to make any. An apology is in order, and so is a promise not to repeat this well nigh unforgivable slight on the patience and loyalty of our fans. Over to you, Mister Wyness. (03/08/05)

What The Fans Say         Revised Ticket Plans For Villareal