Disgraceful, shambolic and not totally surprising is it?.... just a little earlier in the season than usual.
They can not hide behind their usual discalimer this time, that fans should wait for confirmation of dates and venues on that equally shambolic official website. Fight your corner on this one lads, enough is enough.
You may be interested in a lettter I sent to Rick Parry last season when they switched the Lublijana ties. Scroll further down to read his bog standard response.
The club I love usually piss me off at least once in the course of a season, congratulations then on doing so with July only just gone.
Dear Rick Parry.
Hello to you. I hope you do not mind me making contact with you via Email. Ordinarily I would not trouble you, but unfortunately in this instance I feel compelled to put finger to keyboard and raise the following points re: our forthcoming fixture in Slovenia. I am sure that I am not alone in the fact that as soon as the draw was made in Monaco, I finalised my travel plans within 30 minutes. And what an adventure lay in store. Fly to Klagenfurt in Austria, stay there overnight, catch the train over the Alps into Slovenia on match day, stay overnight, explore as much of the Slovenian capital as possible on the Thursday, back up to Austria and then home, in bed for 4am, up for at 7am for work. Tired maybe, but certainly happy, with another European expedition under the belt, support given to the lads, reputation of Liverpool FC upheld and promoted to the full. Liverpool FC have never played in Slovenia before, as you stated on the official website Mr Parry. A tremendous opportunity to make new friends in pastures new. Quite right too. But here's the part of the adventure where it all became a little unstuck. What could possibly go wrong?? Well, you could always switch the ties.
I am aware that the official website advises against making concrete bookings before match dates are confirmed and this sentiment has been echoed by your staff on the phone. LFC also strongly advise against booking flights until match tickets have come through, but Mr Parry we do not live in a world where you can book cheap affordable flights 4-5 days before away matches, nor do we all have jobs where we can say with the minimum of notice, "I'll not be in for 3 days next week".
A cynic may think that the corporate arm of LFC steer people towards booking LFC endorsed travel packages, which in my eyes are both restrictive and extortionately priced. £463 PLUS match ticket?! Mr Parry, I don't know how you can put your name to such a travel option. LFC make me feel like a naughty boy, pure and simple, an inconvenience almost and I'm just about at my wits end with it.
I am aware that Olimpija requested the switch and I know that LFC agreed to said switch and indeed that UEFA subsequently ratified it. What I am left unsure about however is why?? And why did it take as long as it did to be confirmed? No explanation has been forthcoming, let alone an apology, and I am left somewhat lost in the middle as it were. Not for the first time I feel let down, taken for granted, and left out of pocket by the team I love. My understanding is that LFC agreed to the switch to accommodate the Slovenians wishes. My only hope is that one day my team will also feel duty bound to accommodate me, although I won't be holding my breath.
I have watched Liverpool all over Europe Mr Parry, and no doubt I will continue to do so. In this instance however, I shall not be changing my travel arrangements out of loyalty to my travelling companion. He is unable to change his holiday due to work commitments and so we have elected to travel to Slovenia in October as planned.
I'm doing it out of loyalty to him, as I think loyalty is an important virtue. I'll raise you a toast from a watering hole in Lublijana as we watch the game from Anfield there. I'm sure we will make some friends in the process, we normally do on European trips.
The heart stays red Mr Parry, but sometimes it hurts.
Best wishes for the season ahead,
Sean O'Neill.
And here follows the somewhat predictable response:
Dear Mr O’Neill
Thank you for your e-mail of 15th September 2003.
When the UEFA Cup draw is made it is always on the basis that, although the teams drawn will not change, the dates the fixtures are played are subject to confirmation. This was announced at the draw in Monaco and was reflected on the Club website on Friday afternoon.
Olympija Ljubljana put a request into UEFA to switch the fixtures and we raised no objection to this. The final decision, however, was UEFA’s and we did not receive confirmation of the dates from UEFA until Tuesday morning.
The reason you couldn’t get confirmation of the dates was simply because we hadn’t had confirmation from UEFA. You may recall the same happening last year when we drew Vitesse Arnhem.
Yours sincerely
Rick Parry
Chief Executive
