After steadfastly refusing to play the numbers game, Rick Parry did a remarkable about face on the Saturday before the final, when he issued a statement on the clubs official website giving us a breakdown of where the tickets went. Why did he do this? Maybe he decided he had been unreasonable and that he owed the fans an explanation? Stop laughing at the back, he might have. Of course, its also entirely possible that he saw the comments made by Tom Hicks in the Echo that day, in which he criticised the way the club (ie Parry) had handled the distribution of tickets. He may have panicked after seeing that, and felt he had to say something. Or perhaps the Americans had torn a strip off him and instructed him to tell the fans where the tickets went? Well

Follow up:

probably never know, but what we do know is that Parry lied, more than once.

I wanted to write this article immediately after Parry had released his statement, but the European Cup Final was on the horizon and I decided to give all this stuff a rest until the final was over and done with. Parry escaped a lot of criticism that week because the the fans decided nothing should disrupt the preparation for the final, but I would hope that people wont just let this blow over just because Athens has been and gone. I dont know if people are even bothered by all this anymore, but they should be. Im not letting it drop until Parry is no longer at the club, and nor should you.

When the Echos Tony Barrett quizzed Parry about the breakdown of the tickets, he would not be drawn into it. What he did say though, was that 30,000 plus had six games on their fancards and were entered into the ballot. He later admitted the actual figure was 27,000 He also saidthat 4,000 fans had automatically qualified through having attended seven or more CL games. He then informed us the actual figure was 3,300.

He again insisted that the ballot gave fans a 1 in 3.5 chance of getting a ticket, as 7,700 tickets went into it. Well the anecdotal evidence weve seen across all of the LFC internet community, and which I have alluded to in my previous blog articles on the ballot, suggest that this is certainly not the case. If 7,700 tickets went in, how come hardly anyone got tickets? The 1 in 3.5 was nearer to 1 in 9 in reality. And the farcical second ballot is further proof that there was something amiss first time around.

Many Liverpool fans who missed out in the first ballot began to get calls from the ticket office telling them they had been successful in a second ballot. I actually know more people who got tickets in the second ballot than the first! Yet the second ballot was only supposed to be for a limited number oftickets that had not been taken up by those successful in the original one.

Aside from the obvious point that a second ballot wouldnt have been necessary had the club done the first ballot based on applications from those who actually wanted to go to the final, do they really think we are stupid enough to swallow that story?

Lets say for arguments sake, that 10% of those who qualified for tickets didnt take up their allocation. That would mean 770 available in the second ballot. From the original ballot, around 5-7% of those entered had posted on the various LFC forums to say if theyd been successful or not. If we assume there were around 770 in the second ballot, that percentage is a hell of a lot higher as loads of people were posting on forums saying theyd had a call from the ticket office and had gotten lucky with tickets.

The idea that a second ballot even took place is an insult to our intelligence. For a start, it seemed to only be seasonticket holders who got tickets second time round. Also, it was mostly locals. And whatsmore, if you had three, four or even five fancards eligible, all of them miraculously seemed to come up in this second ballot. A friend of mine had six fancards (belonging to friends and family) in the original ballot. He got no tickets. Then he gets a call saying hes got lucky in the second ballot, and all three of his cards have come up! The day before, his mate got a call saying all three of his had come up. So they went from none from six, to six from six. Plenty of others were in the same situation.

Of the second ballot, Parry had this to say: it was always likely that we would need a second ballot. I want to emphasise that the ballot itself was scrupulously conducted. It was independent, and fully computerised and there was no scope for manipulation or interference.” Now which ballot is he referring to when he says it was scrupulously conducted andthere was no scope for manipulation? If hes talking about the first one, I think hes lying. If hes referring to the second one, I KNOW hes lying.

It isnt just him lying though. A club spokeswoman was quoted in the Daily Post saying that a second ballot had been conducted, using the same computerised system as the first. Yeah right, and John Terry is a member of Mensa. If that system is well give the tickets to whoever we want, and theres nothing random about it, then that is true. Otherwise, its another lie, as only a moron would believe that there was any second ballot. They just worked their way through a list of season ticket holders and phoned them up telling them theyd got lucky in a ballot.

Liverpool Football Club think we are idiots and will believe anything they tell us. In the past that was true, as there was no way for people to cross check with other fans to see what was happening. The internet has changedall that however, and they simply cant pull a stunt like that without us getting onto it.

So lets recap. There was something dodgy about the first ballot, as the fans did not have the 1 in 3.5 chance they should have. It was nearer to 1 in 8/9. Also, Rick Parry initially lied about the number of fans who had qualified automatically, and also how many went into the ballot. Whos to say what else he has lied about? Then we are told a second ballot took place, using the same criteria as the first. Well the first ballot included fancard holders, the second one (if it took place, which I dont think it did) seems more or less exclusive to season ticket holders. So that was another lie.

Parry has treated the fans with contempt, and he lied about figures to try and explain why so few fans got tickets in the original ballot. He also said he had looked into how the ballot was conducted, and was satisfied that nothing untoward had gone on. I cant prove it,but Im convinced that is a lie too. The first ballot was not random, and the second one wasnt even a ballot.

The whole thing stank from start to finish, but Parry probably thinks now that hes gotten away with it and it will all have blown over by the time the new season starts. The sad thing is, hes probably right. Im not going to let it drop, but theres not much I can do on my own. Most fans dont want him, Rafa doesnt want him, but unless the Yanks kick him to the kerb, were all stuck with him.

There are only two reasons I can see as to why he hasnt been binned already. The first is that Gillett and Hicks arent completely up to speed with how English football works and they think they need to keep him on until they are. Firing him now may not be an option as they may not think they can handle everything themselves. So they either have to find a replacement, or let him stick around until such time that Foster Gillett can takeover.

The other possibility, and one that fills me with dread, is that the rumours of Parry being awarded a long term contract as a condition of the takeover deal are actually true, meaning it might be too expensive for them to get rid of him. If thats the case, then God help us all.