Shady Estonia-Ireland Ticket Purchases Identified
The nation's football association is tracking down and cracking down on the buyers of 194 tickets to the Euro 2012 playoff match after it was determined on October 18 that they were speculators.
Home side tickets for the all-important, November 11 showdown between Estonia and Ireland were snapped up within a half hour of going on sale in the morning of October 17.
However it soon became obvious that not all the customers were typical fans. One purchaser who scooped up 150 tickets and began advertizing their sale on Facebook has been contacted by the association and is due to return them tomorrow, reported sport.err.ee.
The association is still on the lookout for another, as-yet-unidentified buyer who scored 44 tickets from the Tondi Selver shop in Tallinn. The association has been given the seat number information and is, at this point at least, politely requesting that the purchaser return the tickets.
Football association president Aivar Pohlak noted that Estonians are not used to having to deal with ticket speculators because home games rarely sell out, but that black market ticket sales are a typical phenomenon for popular international games.
Rumors that Irish supporters and speculators had bought up thousands of the tickets, Pohlak said, were false.
Steve Roman