FA turned down offer for 200 England fans to attend Nations League match in Croatia
Monday 15 October 2018 20:57, UK
The Football Association turned down an offer of 200 tickets for England fans to attend Friday night's Nations League game in Croatia, Sky Sports News understands.
The governing body rejected the offer due to safety concerns and the potential issue of allocating the tickets fairly to England supporters.
Instead England played behind closed doors in Rijeka for the first time in their history.
The Croatian FA was serving the second of a two-game ban after a swastika was placed on the pitch before the Euro 2016 qualifying game with Italy in 2015.
Around 480 England supporters bought flights to Croatia when the fixture was first announced in January, only to discover they would be unable to attend the game.
The FA warned fans not to travel and Croatian police informed the UK authorities that individuals faced arrest if they tried to gain a vantage point on the hill overlooking the ground.
However, around 60 England fans managed to get on the hill behind Stadion HKN Rijeka, from where they could see half of the pitch.
One of the fans, who wishes to remain anonymous, has voiced their frustration at the FA's decision to reject the offer of tickets.
"I understand it was difficult for the FA, with so few tickets available," said the fan.
"They have several hundred England Supporters Travel Club members - all of them have enough "caps" to be eligible for these tickets.
"But they held a ballot for the Spain game so why couldn't they do the same for the Croatia game? At least we would have stood a chance of getting in."
