Youngsters kicked out of Emirates for being "Scousers"
A Dream trip to the quarter-finals of the Champions League quickly turned into a nightmare for a young football team from Skelmersdale.
The Arriva Youth under-15s had won a once-in-a-lifetime prize of free tickets to watch Liverpool’s clash with Arsenal last night (Wednesday).
But the evening soon turned sour when they were unceremoniously ejected from the Emirates Stadium.
Bizarrely seated amongst the hard-core element of Arsenal supporters, the football-mad youngsters were victims of a torrent of abuse from adult Gunner supporters.
As proud Liverpool fans, the under-15s celebrated Dirk Kuyt’s 26th minute equaliser, but they were soon turfed out.
Arsenal stewards escorted the boys, and the three adults accompanying them, from their seats and out of the ground.
Stranded outside in unfamiliar surroundings, the children and their guardians went looking for answers but were refused entry back into the stadium.
Ray Radford, manager of the U-15s, was furious at the way his team had been treated and demanded that his shocked players get back in to watch the game.
He said: "We were having a great day until Liverpool scored. We were seated smack bang in the lion’s den and were abused by grown men - men in suits.
"These weren’t louts. They started shouting at the lads as soon as they realised we were Scousers.
"They started shouting about Michael Shields and Heysel - it was pandemonium.
"After we’d celebrated Kuyt’s goal, we were spoken to by the stewards and told to leave the ground.
"Even though I explained to him that the lads were guests of UEFA, because of the competition win, they still chucked us out."
Left stricken outside the ground the lads, wearing special UEFA tracksuits given to them as prize winners, continued to be hurled with abuse from passing footy yobs.
Radford eventually managed to get hold of a female UEFA official but he says she was of little help.
Ray added: "The female UEFA official said we weren’t allowed back in the ground and just left us there.
"We eventually walked round to a part of the stadium we recognised and managed to talk to the UEFA project manager, a guy called Simon Calder.
"He apologised for what had happened saying it was 'unacceptable, appalling and totally unprofessional'.
"But he said that Arsenal were not going to allow us back in the ground.
"We were eventually granted access back to our mini-bus but were not allowed to leave the ground until 11pm.
"By this stage, the lads were very anxious, quiet and very, very scared.
"They were stressed and because we weren’t allowed back in the ground, we missed the rest of the game."
The Advertiser spoke to Ollie Tritton but he declined to comment. UEFA official Simon Calder was unavailable for comment.
first of hopefully many we'll see at the end of the season