A devoted football fan from Northern Ireland whose photograph was used by the Irish Football Association (IFA) to promote ticket sales for the European Championships has ended up without a ticket.
Stuart Killen from Newtownards was pictured cheering on his team in the advertisement to let fans know the ticket portal was open.
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[/raw]UEFA EURO2016 online ticket portal is now open!!! Apply between now and 18 January https://t.co/i3dTVXq4Rp #GAWA pic.twitter.com/3moU5VgGtK
— Official Irish FA (@OfficialIrishFA) December 14, 2015
But despite being the poster boy for the campaign, Killen was unsuccessful in the draw for tickets to the games.
"I'm chairman of the Ards GAWA Supporters Club,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
“I had the most points from the whole club while some members had little to zero points and they received tickets for all three games. I'm delighted for our members who got but bitterly disappointed at missing out myself."
Killen had no idea that his picture would be used in the ads.
"Neither the IFA or Uefa had permission to use my photo so I had no idea about appearing on their adverts until I got my email from the IFA with my picture."
When asked if he would be happy for them to use pictures of him in the future, he said: “Highly unlikely after this fiasco”.
The 33-year-old was just one of hundreds of Northern Ireland fans left disappointed when the tickets were allocated last week.
The IFA said the ticketing was out of their hands after fans who had long histories of following the side missed out in favour of others who hadn’t attended near as many matches.
Distribution of the Republic of Ireland ticket allocation began on Friday, with all fans to find out whether or not they got tickets by Monday February 29.
