Man promises to refund dozens of Irish football fans after tickets fall through

An man has promised to refund dozens of football fans in Ireland after they paid for tickets to watch Premier League giants Manchester United and Liverpool but were left empty-handed.

Belfast Live reports being aware of a number of local people who paid large sums of money for tickets to attend the FA Cup final between Manchester United and Manchester City as well as Liverpool’s last Premier League game of the season against Wolves – which was to be Jurgen Klopp’s farewell.

One Man United fan from Belfast spoke to Belfast Live and claimed they had paid £480 for two tickets to the FA Cup final via Revolut. The promised tickets never arrived, even though the fans had flights and accommodation booked for the trip to London last weekend.

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Since then, dozens of others have come forward to say they too paid Armagh native Patrick White for tickets to games in England and Scotland, but the tickets were never sent. They have been told by White that they will be repaid in full and Mr White reiterated that stance to Belfast Live.

“Just on the matter, I have been advised not to go into the matter too much at the minute,” he said on Friday when contacted. “What I can say is, there has been a genuine mess up, a mistake with some people and their tickets.

“Some people did get into the game, some people didn’t, unfortunately. I am in constant contact with the people that were let down.

“I have reassured them that there will be a refund over and things like that.

“I know it’s a bit of an unfortunate event but, as I say, all money will be refunded and repaid back to the people that were affected.”

Mr White, who is now believed to reside in Widnes, near Liverpool, is a listed director of seven different companies in the UK which are now all dissolved or liquidated. The majority of those claim to be marketing companies.

It’s believed the sums involved in the ticketing issue between White and football fans from Northern Ireland could run into tens of thousands overall in recent months, with a number of group bookings also affected.

“I have been inundated with messages about this,” said a Belfast fan, who is still out of pocket. “I have spoken to 30 or more people who are affected, and those are just the people I know about.

“And they aren’t buying one ticket for themselves, It’s them and their families of bigger groups. It has really grown legs.”

Belfast Live have also been informed of a number of music fans who have paid White for tickets to upcoming concerts involving Taylor Swift and Coldplay.

“Again, I can’t go into the details. The concert tickets, the concert basically hasn’t taken place, and things, yet,” White responded.

“Again, I can’t go into much detail in relation to the rest of it. I just don’t want to cut off or be rude to you on the phone.

“I’m in constant contact with these people via whatsapp and things like that and they will be refunded. So again, I’ll just pop on here,” he added before cutting short the conversation.

Thousands of football fans travel over from Irish shores to attend Premier League football in England and Scotland every weekend during the season.

Some companies offer travel and ticket packages but many fans travel over hoping to pick up tickets.

For huge end of season games and finals, making purchases through the authorised ticket seller or authorised re-sellers, can be extremely difficult with tickets often being offered for huge sums on websites.

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