Like many fellow Gooners we embarked on a trip to the promise land with the dream of coming home as European Champions. Although this was not meant to be in the end, this publication is for all those Gooners who spent the entire game in the Police Cells in the Stade de France alongside myself. Like so many others we had no tickets, after trying anyone with an association to the beautiful game. However we managed to obtain a pair of tickets in the Arsenal end (K) the evening before the game, whilst drinking in Gare du Nord with an army of Arsenal. We went to bed that night on cloud nine awaiting the impending matchday.

Upon entering the ground myself and a friend went to have a look at our seats, only to find a group of people who had the same seat numbers as ours. Alarm bells began to ring, especially with two of the people claiming to have bought theirs from Arsenal. The Authorities had already been alerted before we arrived, and when the Stadium Manager arrived it soon became apparent that our tickets along with others were copies. What remained was a frustrating 90 minutes in the cells to the right of the Barcelona fans. We were kept up-to-date with the score via mobile phones and sign language through the windows between cells. It did not come as a surprise that all cells were full of Arsenal, some from London like ourselves, others from Bahrain, and Holland etc.

We were released as soon as the final whistle went. On May 17th 2006 some of us lost a lot more than the European Cup. All for the Arsenal Religion.

(Ed’s note, I asked Tim how much he had paid for the forged ticket, whether or not the hologram on the silver square of the ticket was a convincing one and whether or not he and his mate had a chance to wander off and attempt to find another spot to watch the game from within the stadium before security pounced. He responded: )

We paid £450 each for the tickets at Gare Du Nord, from a Londoner who claimed to be a Gooner. Being students it was a fair price to pay, although we got off lucky compared to others who paid in excess of £1500. The tickets were perfect with the hologram as we compared them to a friend who had bought tickets through Arsenal.

In hindsight we probably could have walked away, although we were in the ground an hour and a half before to avoid any potential problems, and at this stage they would only let people into the tier that matched their ticket. The people who had the genuine seats did not take kindly to us to be honest, and were obviously not happy to squeeze us in. Right or wrong they had genuine tickets and we didn’t. To be fair the French Police were very fair, it was the stadium security (rent-a-thugs in tracksuits) who were more heavy-handed.

The only consolation that has come is that I’ve been offered two season tickets for the Grove. Every cloud has a silver lining!