A 10-year-old Aberdeen fan was left “in tears” after his cup final tickets were cancelled just weeks away from the match.
Rick Steen, 46, thought he’d “played a blinder” after securing seats for him and his son, James, to attend the League Cup match against Rangers on December 17 – the Dons’ first final in five years.
However, he was soon forced to tell James that their tickets had been revoked.
The all-important Hampden showdown against Rangers was set to be James’ first cup final supporting the Dons.
However, Rick noticed two days ago that the payment he made for the tickets had been refunded.
He phoned Aberdeen FC’s ticket office only to be told that because of a lack of purchasing history, his tickets had been cancelled.
‘He was in tears’
Rick, who has lived in Westhill since 1995, said that he “didn’t know how to break the news” to James.
He said: “It was going to be his very first cup final.
“I told the ticket office that I live in Aberdeen. Me and my boy stay in Westhill, he was born there and has been to games before and has an account.
“We made such a big deal of getting the tickets, it was part of his Christmas presents.
“We had arranged to get a hotel and we would see his auntie and uncle before we went down. He was so excited.
“When we told him he was in tears.
“He asked us why he couldn’t go and we didn’t know what to say.
“He couldn’t understand why they were being taken away from him since we had already paid for them.
“We are gutted.”
League Cup final ticket troubles
The Pittodrie club was forced to release a statement earlier this month after it was suspected Rangers fans were buying up seats in the Aberdeen end.
Tickets to the final were released on general sale on November 15 but after complaints, they had to switch to a more “stringent” system.
They admitted that they had created “unneeded anxiety” for fans.
It read: “With hindsight, we should have created additional tiers to the sales process before going on general sale.
“Not doing so, has caused unneeded anxiety for our loyal fans. We are very sorry for this error.
“We have standard protocols in place for high-demand fixtures to prevent non-Aberdeen fans from purchasing in the designated Aberdeen fans’ sections.
“However, due to an unfortunate human error in our ticket office, an element of these protocols was missed on this occasion.
“We have stringently checked all purchases made during this window to ensure they are compliant with our normal purchasing criteria, which includes a significant buying history.
“The small number of the ticket purchases, which did not meet these standard protocols, are being deactivated and refunded with immediate effect.”