SOME 35 soccer fans, followers of the Irish World Cup qualifying team, had the holiday of a lifetime turned into a nightmare, Cork District Court was told yesterday.
The fans are suing three agencies, Dawson Travel, McCarthy Travel and City Travel, which booked the American trip for them through a British-based tour operator, Sportex, which has gone into liquidation.
Mr David Holland, barrister, said the majority of those who travelled were people of modest means who had had to save for the holiday, which cost approximately £1,400 each. They were faced with chaos and given substandard accommodation and did not even have match tickets waiting for them when they arrived in the US.
Mr John Leahy, from Douglas, the first plaintiff to give evidence against McCarthy Travel, said that on arrival in Orlando they were taken to Days Motor Lodge instead of Days Vineyard Inn, they were tired after flight delays and there was pandemonium at the hotel. They had to queue for accommodation in the car-park for over an hour in torrential rain.
There were only a few representatives from Sportex at the hotel and as soon as the problems arose they disappeared. Mr Leahy said the Cork fans discovered they had no tickets and the management threatened to evict them as the accommodation was not paid for.
He said eventually a plastic bag with tickets was left in the hotel but there were only about 170 in it for more than 300 fans. It was agreed they would travel to New York, where the Italy v Ireland match was being played, and that the tickets would be raffled at the airport. "I was lucky because I drew one of the tickets."
Those who failed to win tickets had to watch the match on television in hotels or in pubs.
He said the return flights to Orlando were delayed and adults and families had to lie around on concrete floors in the airport trying to snatch some sleep.
He said that when a representative from McCarthy Travel arrived at the hotel, she did everything she could to help them.
Ms Marie Dilworth, managing director of McCarthy Travel said she booked the holidays for her clients through Sportex and most of the money, some £53,000, was lodged in a trust fund which she believed would protect her clients in the event of anything going wrong. She also paid Sportex £8,000 for match tickets.
She said she was somewhat apprehensive about the tickets not being available before the fans travelled to the US, but she did not tell them of her worries because she did not want to upset them.
She said as soon as she heard about the problems she travelled to Orlando, where she paid the hotel bill and purchased tickets for the Mexico and Norway games on the black market at $125 each.
"I did not think I had a legal responsibility to any clients because of what happened, but I had a moral responsibility to them and that is why I travelled to Orlando," she said.
Judge Gerard Haughton said Sportex was not properly identified in the brochure and the agents should have checked it
He awarded Mr Leahy £750 and adjourned the rest of the cases until today.