Dave Usher Rant - TLW

[Rocket]

He had to 'settle' for them after the ones he wanted DIC dropped out because HE and the board were taking an age to decide what to do. He ended up going for the "Rich Americans" because they paid £8M more to his mate David Moores.

each to their own, Parry has done two major things in the past 3 years, i'll judge him on that

[Rashid]

each to their own, Parry has done two major things in the past 3 years, i'll judge him on that

And forget this year's CL ticket fiasco, the Gerrard situation after 2005, the ticket office fiasco of the past 10 years, the stadium fiasco, the problems with getting investment, DIC problems, the £500K bonus when we are skint, the 2 year gardening leave should we want to get rid?

Liverpool FC could have got Rafa and Investment with or without Parry. We aren't some no mark institution although Parry has done he level best at making us look like clowns in the tansfer market, in marketing, merchandise and such like.

[bigfooty]

Parry has done some good things but he / we have come up short in some others which shouldn't be the case at a club of our size and considering the money he is on. Hopefully the Americans realise this and will redesign his role so that he has less influence on some critical areas.

[Imy]

First and Foremost this ticketing fiasco is beyond a joke, UEFA as per usual have screwed the fans over and created a black market in final tickets (However they are better then their Rugby Union counterparts who have allocated Leicester Tigers and Wasps just 7000 tickets each in the 82000 Twickenham for the Heineken cup final).

If correct, LFC handing the Lion share of tickets to their corporate buddies is disgusting.

Whether that is solely Parry's fault I'm not sure, however his fault or not I also can't stand the smug get. Parry has made to may feck ups, in the same time he's been in charge look at what's happened to Man Yoo and Arsenal, they are light years ahead of us off the pitch. The 2 years notice to leave, and £500K bonus just shows he's in it for himself.

[JRC]

On YNWA the same figures have been used to prove - convincingly - that 85% of tickets have gone to Fans (although that may depoend on your definition), the remainder being (legal, contractual) obligations to sponsors, player, employees, Development Assciation etc.

[Marky]

Is there no way this article can be sent to Mr Parry himself?
Surely that would be the most sensible solution to this?

[alunevans]

Is there no way this article can be sent to Mr Parry himself?
Surely that would be the most sensible solution to this?

I've wrote to the club and asked for the figures. So far they refuse to publish the figures. But I don't see why unless they really are hiding something.

I still think that its unfair that someone who only goes to the CL home games is treated the same as me who goes to everything, but that aside, I want to know how many of the 17,000 went to fans, where the rest went, and why.

[RoadEnd]

The 5000 fancards numbered 10000001 to 10005000 were split as follows:

445 fancards pre-qualified with 7 or more credits
635 fancards were successful in the ballot
2097 fancards were unsuccessful in the ballot

and therefore 1823 fancards did not qualify either for a ticket or the ballot.

Total number in the ballot = 2097 + 635 = 2732
635 successful, therefore 635/2732 = 0.232 (3sf), or 23.2% chance of success. A fair way under the 1 in 3 chance most people expected.

Slightly more interesting results are achieved if we take the number of pre-qualified fancards and the successful ones in the ballot, and extrapolate.

Rick Parry said there were approximately 4000 pre-qualifying fancards, therefore:

635 * (4000 / 445) = 5707 (0dp) tickets in the ballot

and

2732 * (4000 / 445) = 24557 (0dp) fancards qualified for the ballot, close to the suggested 27,000 and adding weight to the figure calculated above.

So, to summarise:

17,000 allocation
4,000 to pre-qualifying fancards
5,700-ish available in the ballot
7,300 to 'other sources'

Confused about the 5,000 fancards. Surely there are more than that

[alunevans]

Confused about the 5,000 fancards. Surely there are more than that

I think they've taken those as a sample and worked through them collecting the figures.

[RoadEnd]

I think they've taken those as a sample and worked through them collecting the figures.

[PLY]

They've left the computer program running all night and the figures don't look good.

250,000 fancard numbers now checked:

3236 fancards pre-qualified with 7 or more credits
5833 fancards were successful in the ballot
19328 fancards were unsuccessful in the ballot

Total number in the ballot = 19328 + 5833 = 25161
5833 successful, therefore 5833/25161 = 0.232 (3sf), or 23.2% chance of success.

Extrapolation:

5833 * (4000 / 3236) = 7210 (0dp) tickets in the ballot

and

25161 * (4000 / 3236) = 31101 (0dp) fancards qualified for the ballot.

So, to summarise:

17,000 allocation
4,000 to pre-qualifying fancards
7,210-ish available in the ballot
5,790 to 'other sources'

Using the estimated 27,000:

27,000 * 0.2318... = 6259 tickets available in the ballot

[PLY]

I think it's pretty obvious now that a large part of the ticket allocation is contracted to go LFC's 'corporate family' as part of our numerous sponsorship packages

[Rashid]

Found this on TLW

Tony Blair has today revealed that he will resign as leader of the country in June. Is it really that long since he was elated when he came to power. That was the beginning of May 1997 and I remember dancing around my room when it was confirmed. How times have changed.

The following day, still somewhat hung over, I found out from Liverpool FC that I along with 3 friends would not be getting a ticket for the away leg of the European Cup Winners Cup Semi Final against Paris St. Germain. There was no real reason for this decision as we had been away in Europe before and were members of the European Travel Club that Liverpool had at the time (you had to be members to get tickets). No, the reason we were given was that we were not going on the official Liverpool Trip that left Speke on the day of the match, gave you an hour in Paris, took you to the game, and then straight back to Speke afterwards, all for a fee of 290 quid. I was living in Surrey at the time, and it was both cheaper and quicker for me to get to Paris than it was to Speke. We had already booked our hotel for 3 nights, ferry and car and the whole thing cost us 70 quid each. I wrote to Liverpool explaining the situation, but it was a ‘security’ issue. I wonder if they still have the fax where I attached a photocopy of my arse. We went to Paris anyway and tickets were available for the Liverpool end from HMV in Paris on the day of the match. We were all so livid that we never bothered and watched it on French TV in our hotel.

At that time, I had a season ticket for 21 years. I had been to near as dammit all games home and away for 10 of those years. In the 10 years of away games, I wrote to Liverpool on numerous occasions complaining about ticket allocations, especially for derby games, and although I am sure they never got the idea from me, I suggested a computerized system for tracking who had been to which games and allocating tickets accordingly. Time and again though, I got the same replies. I wonder if they still have the fax on record where I photocopied my hand giving them the ‘V’ sign.

My Dad started the Liverpool Supporters Club Derby Branch with a bloke called Derek Igoe back in 1974. It was the first Liverpool Supporters Club outside of Liverpool. We had a mini-bus and a couple of cars going to all home games, and either one or two cars to all aways at that time. In ’97, I had not had a holiday my whole working life (except for European aways) because I used them all up going to Brighton on a Wednesday night in the FA Cup, or Anfield on a Monday morning to pick up tickets for the Carlisle game in the cup. First come first served at the time – living in Derby (or London) did not stop me. We had a great bunch of lads, most of whom were exiled Scousers or their offspring, and then in April ’89, we lost one of ours. I know for a fact that a number of us were close to giving up after that, but none of us did. It was in our blood.

A year before the PSG game, Liverpool introduced the International Supporters Club. As we saw it, you paid 8 pounds to get a card to say you were a Liverpool supporter and a load of advertising from the Souvenir Shop. We didn’t need a card (except for our European Travel Club card) as we already had our Season Tickets. When you are spending your salaries on Liverpool, another 8 quid is not worth it, so only a few obliged.

Derek Igoe, who started the Derby Branch with my Dad, was diagnosed with cancer at around this time. He was a lovely bloke and I think of him regularly to this day. Seeing him in the final weeks hurt deeply as I had only ever known going to Anfield with him and he always looked after me. He died a few months later.

I know that I cannot blame Liverpool FC for their timing, and we were still livid from the PSG piss take, but the day after Derek died, we got a letter from Liverpool telling us that because we did not have 25 members of the International Supporters Club, we were no longer a recognized branch. This was the final straw for me and for others too. Good Reds who were home and awayers giving it all up. We had been through Hillsborough, given evidence and it came down to this. So sad.

Rick Parry joined Liverpool in ‘97, although I cannot blame him for the PSG tickets or the Derby Branch incidents. His career and mine have gone in different directions since then. I moved abroad and am now married to the most wonderful person on the planet – and I had to search the planet to meet her. Rick has stayed at home and gone to the games. Neither of us has had to worry about tickets for important matches like I used to. I have always liked him. He seemed to do things ‘The Liverpool Way’, keeping a low profile and opening his mouth only when required, as did John Smith before him.

In the last 10 years, Tony Blair’s career has been going downhill fast. He has lied and cheated and sucked up to the moneymen without giving a toss to the grass roots. He has sold his sole (or New Years Honours anyway) and people that held out so much hope when he was elected are now against him to the point where he has resigned. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Far be it from me to compare the careers of Blair and Parry, but doubts started creeping in about Blair over the Iraq war and the lack of evidence. I was sure that there was something wrong and my fears were proven to be correct over the next four years. The Gerrard transfer saga seemed fishy to me too, but I had always loved (and still love) David Moores and had every faith in Parry too. Why then would our captain, after lifting the European Cup and telling the world he was ready to sign a new contract, put in a transfer request saying that Liverpool had not seemed too keen. If memory serves me right, Mr. Parry was in Barbados or somewhere at the time. After hating Gerrard with a vengeance for his actions, he withdrew his transfer request because he could not leave the club he loved so much. Gerrard looked stupid. Liverpool looked stupid. Perhaps the reasons given were valid, and that is Liverpool did not make Stevie feel wanted. That was two years ago, but the doubts have been in the back of my mind ever since.

10 years since I gave up my season ticket, and I miss it so much. I miss going to the match with my younger brother, I was not there for my Nephews first match and I have yet to take my wife. Talking to her the other day about our future, we discussed the possibility of moving to England in the next 4 years for our daughters’ education. She suggested that I should put our names down for season tickets at the new stadium so that we could all go as a family. I was so excited by this and all the reasons why I gave up in the first place went away. Going week in week out again, this time with my Wife, Daughter, Dad and Brother. I dreamt of it that night.

I am not entitled to a ticket to Athens. If I came across a ticket, I would sell it at face value to someone more deserving than me as it always angered me when I was a regular and people less deserving got tickets when I didn’t. So why did I become so angry when I saw the allocation by Liverpool FC (although my Brother is OK and that is the main thing). I am angry with UEFA too, but that is a standard thing. I will tell you why I felt so angry. Never in the history of Football has a crowd won a major competition until 2005 in Istanbul. Our new Owners can see it, our Manager can see it and our players can see how great we are and what makes us special (I am using ‘we’ because of my former glories, not as the armchair I was forced to become). Even the media, other players and supporters comment on it. So when we get to Athens, our 12th man (or his legs anyway) will still be in the pub. I am sure that we will get loads of tickets as usual, but they will all be at increased prices from the black market and ticket agencies.

Furthermore, I am angry because a potentially fair (as it can be) system is in place in the form of a fan card that records who has been to which matches. Quite simple 40+ matches collect your ticket in Monday. 35-40 on Tuesday, 34 Wednesday, 33 Thursday etc. until sold out. But no. Then, in a ballot system, not giving ST holders priority is stupid, and having a ballot for all those who qualify (whether intending to go or not) is just increasing the black market and downright sinful. One of the worst things about it all though, is that my anger from 10 years back is revisited. The incompetence of the Ticket Office is as much in Liverpool’s history as our European Cup Victories. I know a number of good Reds who have been lost due to; ahem, administrational incompetence and now I am sure that there will be more.

Worse still. I, and many other are still deeply, deeply hurt by the events of 18 years ago. But we are not hurt like those involved in any other disaster because they have not had a newspapers pointing the fingers at survivors. They have not had their own (successive) governments deny the families of the victims to have their basic civil rights due to arbitrary judgements, although they were not arbitrary, but coldly calculated so that those responsible would not be brought to book. We still have to live with all this every day of our lives, the injustice of it all, and then what we witnessed on that day, and then grieving for those we lost. It all gets too much sometimes. Only a few weeks ago, Mackenzie was on Question Time and said that he could stand by the Ticket-less Fans statements. This is pointing the finger still, at us, for going to a football match without tickets. The general public still think that Liverpool fans caused Hillsborough because we turned up without tickets, and then you, Rick Parry, encourage the same thing to happen again. Can you see where I am coming from Sir?.

Tony Blair promised so much (including a legitimate scrutiny of Hillsborough) and failed to deliver on all points. Rick Parry, you too promised so much, but for you not to understand that someone who goes home and away with Liverpool will still go to Athens with or without a ticket is ridiculous. And if you do understand that, why have you allocated tickets in such a way that only the black market will benefit. What about the safety of our supporters.

I am very sad to say, but it is time that Mr. Rick Parry resigned. The doubts I had over the Gerrard affair have, like with Blair and Iraq, proved to be right. For the benefit of Liverpool Football Club, the safety and sanity of its supporters and the common good, please go. Now.

Andy G - The Liverpool Way

[Rocket]

where did they get access to this information to use these figures?

[alunevans]

I think it's pretty obvious now that a large part of the ticket allocation is contracted to go LFC's 'corporate family' as part of our numerous sponsorship packages

That's more in the ballot than I initially thought to be honest.