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The Tour That Never Was,
UEFA Cup
October 2002
Diary of events
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30-Aug-2002 |
Ipswich draw against Yugoslavian team, FK Sartid from Smederevo.
2nd leg to be played in Smederevo on 3-Oct-2002 |
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17-Sep-2002 |
After much investigation, the best option
seemed to be a day trip from Stansted airport with a company called Sportops. Phone calls were made to
check visa requirements etc and bookings were made. |
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25-Sep-2002 |
Sportops decide to cancel the tour, and I
quote from their letter "...it would seem that the euphoria of Ipswich Fans
traveling abroad has gone.". |
Euphoria of travelling abroad has gone: 1,000 to
Moscow, 2,500 to
Helsingborg, 9,000 to
Milan, 1,800 to Luxembourg. These are the number of TractorBoys and Girls who made previous
European trips.
TractorBoy Rant
Now, we are hardly in a position to comment about professionalism (just
have a look at this website) but I would have expected a tour operator with,
according to them, a good reputation, could manage a little better than a
cancellation letter which was undated and not even signed. Surely if there were
so few people booked on the trip, it wouldn't have taken long for each letter
sent to their "client" they had let down, to be signed, thus giving the
impression that the company were sincere about their apology for canceling the
trip. Incidentally, their website was still advertising the tour to Serbia, the
day after the game was played.
Pictures
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