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Newcastle Falcons have announced the cancellation of this weekend's Algarve Super Cup match against rivals Sale Sharks in Portugal.
The decision was been taken by both teams, due to reasons outside of the clubs' control, with a Newcastle spokesman explaining the situation.
"Despite having received the necessary approval from both the English and Portuguese Rugby Football Unions, and from the stadium itself, ourselves and Sale were made guarantees by the promoter which have not been met," he said.
"It is with great regret that we have been forced into making the joint decision along with Sale Sharks to cancel this game, especially with so many of our supporters having committed to travelling over.
"Those supporters will be contacted and refunded in full, but to protect our own interests and those of our fans and club partners, we have unfortunately had no alternative but to cancel the fixture."
Sharks CEO Mick Hogan echoed the situation, with the north-west side saying that the warm-up game against Clermont Auvergne on August 6 will go ahead as planned.
However in a dramatic twist to the story, Falcons Chairman Dave Thompson has revealed that foul play could be at work regarding the duo's pre-season friendly. He has stated in Tuesday's Evening Chronicle that financial payments are still an unresolved issue.
"I was in the Algarve two weeks ago and the game wasn't being advertised over there at all," he explained.
"I came back feeling it was a little bit dubious.
"We had been told that Sale had been out to inspect everything and that it was all in order. But from what we can ascertain there had been no ticket sales.
"The stadium, the hotel and the air company all took bookings, but they had not received any money.
"We have been unable to make contact with the agent in the Algarve. He won't return calls.
"So on that basis we both decided it was best by far to cancel the trip at this stage and avoid arriving to a total disaster."
Comments
BernasRosmaninh says...
Mr. Heathy, this information, albeit being related to a fixture arranged in Portugal, has nothing to do with either the portuguese federation, any portuguese promoter or portuguese officials.
I understand that some ignorance would generate comments such as yours but in truth the number of international teams that come to Portugal each year to have training camps, do some weeks of team building or any other activities, is staggering.
This match was organized by a spanish promoter, a person that had no kind of relation to the portuguese federation and is of dubious character. The game was even promoted as if the Algarve Stadium is in Spain, with the venue being advertised as Almancil, Loulé, Spain. The portuguese officials were in Oporto, where the 4th World University Sevens Championship was played last week (Bessa Stadium) and there was already a suspicion that this was indeed, a scam.
If you, and/or any other visitor, dislike Portugal or the Portuguese rugby, you're free to do so, but please try to inform yourself before posting biased (and, honestly, stupid) comments. We do not need to see our rugby tarnished by idiotic accusations, It is bad enough that we have lots of difficulties in raising our rugby clubs and national team to a higher level, we don't need to have problems such as this one and have organized, so far, great competitions, whenever the international organizations take some time and realize that it is better for developing nations's rugby if they get to compete against the best or host the best in their country.
Best regards,
Bernardo Rosmaninho
Posted 05:06 29th July 2010
bluelion says...
Be fair. It is one person, the agent. A bit much to liabel the entire population.
Posted 12:36 28th July 2010
filipe says...
Heathy why are you talking smach about the portuguese? Are you stupid? It wasn't even their fault
Posted 10:16 28th July 2010
heathy says...
Guys, you are dealing with the Portugese. What did you honestly expect? I wouldn't put the Portugese in charge of an under 12's 7 a side, let alone something like this. The agent wont even return calls?? Jeeps, what are they like?
Posted 21:37 27th July 2010