Bohemians hit out at Drogheda
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League of Ireland Premier Division champions elect Bohemians have hit out at Drogheda United and accused them of "a complete lack of respect" ahead of the pair's eagerly awaited clash at United Park this Friday evening. Should Bohs win, they will capture the title that Drogheda won for the first time in their history last season.
However, the Dublin club have this evening expressed extreme annoyance at their opponents, who have refused to send an allocation of tickets to Dalymount Park ahead of the game, despite the fact that the ground will be unable to house the number of visiting fans making the short trip north.
A statement on the club's official website, bohemians.ie, reads...
The Board of Bohemian FC want to advise our supporters that no tickets have been provided to the club for presale by Drogheda United. This is despite the fact that we have been asking for tickets for over a week.
We expressed concern to Drogheda United that only 400 away fans will be admitted even though we expect many more to travel.
Despite numerous phone calls and e-mails, Drogheda United remained uncontactable until Monday (6/10) of this week. They then sought from Gerry Conway, Honorary Secretary, an unqualified guarantee on behalf of Bohemian FC that all tickets sold by Bohemians would be paid for in full on Friday (10/10) at 5pm.
In the interests of our supporters the Hon. Sec. made that commitment. At this point Drogheda United agreed to release 400 tickets to us.
By 5pm on Tuesday (7/10) no tickets had arrived. At 9.30 am this morning (Wed 8/10), Drogheda United informed us that no tickets would be given to us unless all 400 were paid for in advance and in full (EUR6,600).
We offered to give a cheque for this amount to a senior official of the eircom League to be held until Friday evening. Drogheda then agreed to send the tickets when the League confirmed to them that they physically had the cheque.
Drogheda United have since reneged on this agreement and have informed us that they would only accept a bank draft for the full amount. In view of the fact that Drogheda United already owe Bohemian FC a substantial amount of money we felt it would not be prudent to pay in advance for tickets that we might not sell, particularly given the short time available for sales as a result of Drogheda United's unwillingness to discuss allocations.
We believe that Drogheda United have shown a complete lack of respect for our Club and our fans, and have not acted in the spirit of the Participation Agreement governing our League.
They have also clearly displayed a reckless disregard for the safety of our supporters and security concerns that could possibly arise on Friday night, as a result of their actions. Bohemian FC will be meeting with eircom League officials to express our concerns in relation to this matter.
