A group of children on a school trip were left in tears after they were told they could not watch Leicester City's Premier League match against Stoke City on Saturday 17th January 2015.
Two teachers and 12 children from Fosse Primary School had arranged to take a coach to watch Leicester play, but when they arrived they were told the tickets were no longer available and they were refused entry to King Power Stadium.
Among them was 7-year-old Charlie Dean, whose mum, Gail, 32, of Woodgate, Leicester, said: “He’s a big Leicester City fan and watches the matches on TV with his granddad all the time. When he got home he was in tears. It’s appalling they’re sending kids home crying.”
The situation arose over a confusion about a promotional sales price for tickets for schoolchildren.
A Leicester City spokesman said: “The Club works with a number of schools and community groups to engage with young people throughout Leicestershire and make Premier League football accessible to Leicester City’s fans of the future. Through these initiatives, we are able to offer a limited number of tickets to key community partners for memorable, sell-out fixtures at King Power Stadium.
“In order to ensure that seats in high demand are not left unoccupied, deadlines are placed on the purchase of tickets reserved under these initiatives. These deadlines are clearly communicated to community applicants when tickets are reserved. In this instance, tickets reserved by the party in question had not been purchased before the notified deadline and were subsequently released on general sale.”
Fosse Primary School headteacher Richard Stone said: “When our member of staff asked directly about payment no mention was made of any deadline by which the tickets needed to be purchased. No mention was made at any time that the tickets would be released for sale if not picked up by Friday at 5pm.
A member of staff did, in fact, try to pick up the tickets on Friday afternoon but the ticket sales office was not open even though it states tickets can be purchased up to 6pm."
Despite numerous calls no-one from the club has made the effort to talk to us."
We feel let down that we appear to be being blamed for Leicester City’s poor communication and that 11 young children who were expecting a great day out at their local club have not even received an apology."
Leicester lost the game 1-0.
The situation does bring into sharp focus administrative aspects of planning school trips such as deadlines and communication, which are crucial at all times.
