Fan left disappointed after Poland v England match wash out
BEING left soaking wet and still not able to catch his beloved England playing against Poland was not a Cheltenham resident's idea of a good holiday.
Tony Stenner, 52, from Charlton Kings, was in Warsaw to watch England's World Cup qualifier against Poland on Tuesday night.
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Tony Stenner
The match was due to kick off at 8pm, but had to be called off more than an hour later because torrential rain left the pitch water logged.
The Polish National Stadium was built for the Euros this year, and has a retractable roof.
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Mr Stenner, who works for a pension's consultancy, said: "The whole thing was a complete and utter joke.
"The forecast was for at least two-and-a-half inches of rain for the afternoon and the evening. The stadium has got a roof. They should have used it. It was absolute incompetence.
"I was soaking wet before I got into the stadium. They should have closed it earlier."
He left for Warsaw on Monday, spending about £30 on his match ticket and more than £150 for the entire trip. He was forced to fly back disappointed yesterday for work.
More than 2,500 England fans were packed into the stadium together with 55,000 other people, who had to leave without seeing the game.
Mr Stenner said: "I was terribly disappointed and angry.
"With a roof at the stadium, there is absolutely no excuse."
He said he had to call his son Billy in England to find out it had been cancelled.
"The first I heard of it was when I rang home. They had announcements over the PA, but none of it was in English. It was all in Polish, and if there was anything in English, I didn't hear it," he said.
A spokesman for the FA yesterday claimed England fans might be given a full refund by the Polish Football Association for their tickets.
Mr Stenner said some fans spent up to £500 on the trip, and to get just the match ticket price back was unfair.
The father-of-three, who has been travelling to England games for the last six years, said more needed to be done to repay the fans.
He added: "Everyone was really annoyed about the whole thing.
"It is an absolutely cracking multi-million pound stadium and yet they let something like this happen. The FA asked us to send our tickets back, but the parameters to the refund are still unknown."
England played against Poland yesterday.
Comments
by badger12
Friday, October 19 2012, 2:26PM
“Don't worry, I was also left dissapointed after the match as well - on the Wednesday.”
by TimMessanger
Friday, October 19 2012, 2:23AM
“Hang on, he should have known that ****ballers don't like to get their hair wet, should have looked at the weather forecast or taken out some travel insurance!”
by GlosAnarchy
Thursday, October 18 2012, 11:32PM
“a bull dog and licking .... off of a thistle comes to mind!”
by NibNobs
Thursday, October 18 2012, 6:46PM
“Who in their right mind would spend £180, let alone £500 when it's a televised game you could watch free on non-Murdoch TV! £500 could feed my family for 2 months - He must have money to burn.”
by IsitJimKerr
Thursday, October 18 2012, 11:33AM
“Mr Stenner said some fans spent up to £500 on the trip, and to get just the match ticket price back was unfair................'
So who does he want to stump up the refund? The airline, the rail company, FIFA, the FA.
Actually, that's it, FA is all you are going to get back, because if you had any sense, you would know that anything like this is a lottery.
Did he ONLY go to this match because he KNEW they had a roof, and in the likely event of it raining, derrrrrrrr.............. it's autumn, they would cover the pitch, or was it really because Warsaw is a nice place to visit etc?
So what if it didn't have a roof, and it p!ssed down and the match was called off for safety reasons, would he have gone wingeing to TiG?
Jeeeeeeez, some people...............................”
by geraint2010
Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:40AM
“Wrong home nation - wrong shaped ball!”
by cheltenham20
Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:05AM
“Mr Stenner said some fans spent up to £500 on the trip,
Well these people need to see a doctor, £500 to see a bunch of pansie's kick a ball about. begger's belief.. Some people are of the understanding that we have a football team, can only think that these people left school at a very early age...Very soon people will be walking zombie fashion ... Im afraid all hope is fading.... Pour me another drink Trish, yes, make it a large one, time is not on our side....”
by thomas1996
Thursday, October 18 2012, 7:38AM
“At least he got back to watch it on TV... for free.”