ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC have been forced to rearrange their travel plans after Uefa abruptly changed the date of their Europa League second leg fixture against AS Jeunesse Esch.
The SSE Airtricity League club were due to play in Luxembourg on Thursday 7 July but Uefa have instead insisted the fixture must be played two days previous, on Tuesday 5 July.
After yesterday’s draw, it had been originally confirmed that the Saints would play their first qualifying round tie first leg at Richmond Park on Tuesday 28 June and the return leg nine days later.
St Pat’s lodged an appeal via the Football Association of Ireland but it fell on deaf ears with the club and its supporters now forced to cancel or amend flights to and from Luxembourg.
“We regret this late change and will be raising the matter at a future date with Uefa as all communications, both verbal and official written confirmation of draw clearly state that the match was due to take place on 7 July,” a club statement read.
“We are aware that some supporters may have already booked flights and accommodation and will be inconvenienced, and we regret this as the Club took the precaution of not releasing dates until official written communication was received from Uefa.
“Once again we apologise for any inconvenience caused to our supporters, but unfortunately this late change was imposed on us beyond our control.
“We would advise fans who have made arrangements to contact their flight operators to try to cancel/amend their flights as soon as possible.”
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