Mystery as unused tickets for Euro 96 turn up for auction
IT WAS a tournament that so nearly saw football come home before England crashed out in a nail-biting penalty shoot-out to Germany in the semi-finals.
And a set of unused tickets for every match at the Euro 96 football championships has been discovered in an old suitcase.
A valuer at Derbyshire-based Hansons Auctioneers found the tickets – which have a combined face value of £1,680 – among a collection of cigarette cards brought to a valuation by a customer from Stoke-on-Trent.
The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes the tickets may have been stored for more than 20 years in the suitcase, which belonged to their grandfather, but has no idea how they got there.
Alistair Lofley, football valuer at Hansons, said: “I have seen the odd ticket from Euro 96 before but never an entire set like this. It’s a mystery.
“All the tickets are printed with the name Ben Edwards. Perhaps they were a competition prize or given to a member of the FA.
“Some of the matches were played on the same day so it would have been logistically impossible to go to them all, unless they were bought to share with friends. For any diehard football fan, to think of these tickets going begging is hard to swallow – an entire tournament of matches in England that someone could have watched.”
The tickets for 31 games – including Germany’s 2-1 goldengoal win over the Czech Republic in the final at Wembley – will be sold on May 23 with a guide price of up to £150.
Mr Lofley added: “Football ticket stubs from important games are collectors’ items and this set is sure to appeal.”