HUNDREDS of dedicated Blackburn Rovers fans have been trapped in a season ticket nightmare after new credit checks barred them from buying their Ewood Park seats in instalments.
Club bosses are now desperately trying to sort out the backlog of applications with the finance company responsible.
The monthly payment loans allow supporters to purchase the pass in eight instalments.
Rovers head of commercial and marketing Greg Coar said: “We apologise to fans caught up in this.
“We are trying to sort it out as quickly as possible. We don’t want to put people off buying season tickets.
“We want the ground as full as possible in what we hope will be a promotion season. We think at least 200 fans have been caught up but we are checking the details.”
The company which runs the scheme, Zebra Finance, has blamed a ‘bug’ in its computer system and has so far reversed credit refusals for 40 fans.
Mark Fish, secretary of the BRFC Action group, said: “We have had dozens of people contact us about this. They must be the tip of the iceberg.
“There must be hundreds of fans affected by it.
“A season ticket costs a lot of money, especially if you are buying for a family.
“Two years ago Zebra Finance took over running the instalment system from Premium Credit.
“There were no problems last season but this year hundreds of fans, long-standing supporters who have never had a problem, have had their applications refused. No reasons were given.
“With all the problems Rovers have had in the last couple of years, this is the last thing they need.
“They don’t want to put off dedicated supporters from buying season tickets. The club needs all the support it can get.”
Under the system run for the club by Zebra, which provides a similar service for 80 clubs including Manchester United, a basic £225 season ticket costs £240 paid in eight monthly instalments of £30. Several thousand are sold each year, many using the easy payment programme.
Blackburn MP and Ewood season ticket holder Jack Straw said: “I think this is unfortunate at a time when the club needs every committed fan they can get. I hope that it is sorted out quickly and I will happily take up any individual cases brought to my attention.”
Ewood ward councillor Maureen Bateson, a long term Rovers fan, said: “I have heard a lot of people have been affected.
“Season tickets are a lot of money for people, especially in these difficult times.
“Many people cannot afford to buy them up front. For a family, it a really big outlay.
“I just hope the club sort it out as soon as possible.
“Rovers have had a difficult couple of years and they need all the fans and season ticket holders they can get.
“They cannot afford to put people off coming to Ewood Park.”
Mr Coar said: “Zebra took over from Premium Credit last year and there were no problems.
“But this year there have been technical problems. As soon as we found out, we raised them with Zebra.
“The deadline for the scheme is coming up but anyone who made their application in time and got mistakenly caught up will get a season ticket.
“Renewals have been going really well this year.”
Robert Easton, a director at Derby-based Zebra, said: “Last year we opened 1,700 accounts covering around 2,000 season tickets. We have a had a bug in the system which resulted in some applications being wrongly refused this year.
“We have been manually checking the refusals and have so far approved 40 of them and informed the fans individually. Other cases have been referred back to the club. We have to be a responsible credit lender.”
A Football League spokesman said: “A number of clubs operate this system for buying season tickets. We are not at the moment aware of similar problems elsewhere.”
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