Bridge in Ticket Tout Trouble

Last updated : 11 June 2002 By Christian Kelly
A friend of Wayne Bridge made the mistake of selling one of the players four complimentary tickets onto a reporter for the Daily Mail for £400

Mick Parton from Winchester was given two tickets by Bridge for Friday's Argentina game. Parton used one for himself but wanted to sell on the other.

Parton reportedly said: "I'm keeping one [ticket] for myself but I've been trying to get rid of the other.

"It's come from Wayne Bridge - I'm a mate of his.

"Wayne won't know anything about this. He will assume I just gave it to a mate."

Wayne Bridge has told the official site that the ticket in fact had actually came from the FA's own allocation rather than his own. Bridge said:

"I have not got a clue what happened. This guy is a friend of the family so I got him two tickets for the first match and one for the game against Argentina.

"He went to the game and apparently told the organisers that I was going to leave him more tickets. I gather they gave him some more and it seems he went and sold them. But they did not have my name on. As I understand it he got them off the FA.

"Next thing I knew, there were stories in the papers about it. I just hope he does not bump into my dad out here because he is absolutely fuming!

"Apart from anything else that is the last thing I need when I am trying to focus on tomorrow's big game against Nigeria even though my conscience is clear.

There will probably be an investigation into the matter but it looks pretty clear that Bridge will be found squeaky clean.