GAA apologises for its missing tickets fiasco

GAA chiefs apologised last night for the missing tickets fiasco which meant more than 1,000 Cork and Galway fans missed Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final.

The tickets turned up in Croke Park yesterday, in a batch of football final tickets awaiting distribution.

"The problem was caused by an administrative error," admitted a spokesperson. "The problem has never happened previously and steps have already been taken to ensure there is not a recurrence."

The tickets should have been distributed to the competing counties last Sunday.

"They had inadvertently been packaged as 'football final' tickets and were with various allocations of tickets awaiting distribution for the Kerry versus Tyrone game," said the spokesperson.

"The GAA deeply regrets that a mistake such as this should occur and has reiterated its apology to supporters and to the County Boards of the participating counties. The attendance of 81,136 was the largest attendance at an All Ireland hurling final since 1956."

Ironically, GAA president Sean Kelly appointed a full-time ticketing administrator, Dan Nelligan, this year, to oversee general distribution. But Mr Nelligan, the son of former Kerry goalkeeper Charlie, was not in charge of distribution for the final. Tickets for the hurling and football deciders are issued from the office of director general, Liam Mulvihill.