I've said it before and I will say it again...our club should not be responsibl for taking the costs of an aboandoned match, called off by an official from the Footaball League. Ofcourse it is only fair that the fans who made the effort to show up should not pick up even more extra cost of a new ticket...if Town have incurred losses then they should seek compensation from the Football League. That is garaunteed to stop this sort of farce in the future.

The club's costs are irrelevant. 37 minutes of a football match is not like receiving 1 course out of 2 at a restaurant, or half the books you ordered (annoying, but still a partial completion of your order), it's watching half a film at the cinema. Watching 37 minutes of the story is pointless if you don't get to see how it develops and how it ends. Quite simply, the entertainment you paid for has not been delivered AT ALL (not partially).

In the above analogy, the cinema would offer you a refund, or the opportunity to see the film in full whenever you wanted. And that's what the fans at Middlesborough should get. Arguing that they've got (nearly) half what they paid for, because they've seen 37 minutes that'll count for nothing at the end of the season, with no conclusion to the game, is ridiculous.

Clegg out!!

I agree Spivvy. The club have costs to recover. Its a reasonably fair offer. Neither the managers nor the players were happy playing on that pitch. It looked like a pre-season friendly, and I'd guess every one of them was glad to get off as soon as possible.

The post by "sorry" is spot on,,,, We are in an entertainment business. Full refunds for those who cannot make the tue game, Free entry for the casual supporters for and the season tickets supporters who like myself travelled many miles should get.......? Well i'm sure Clegg will come up with something hey.... hmmmmmmmm

does the fault lay with the FA? They carried out the inspection did they? They gave the go ahead for the match to be played and then called it off. So surely there representative must be answerable to this in some shape or form?

I would have thought though that the ticket would just be re-used, but I guess staff have all been paid etc. Hindsight looking at the weather forcast this should have just been cancelled on friday.

How many fans paid for tickets? Excluding season ticket holders. The ones who did get in for free, I doubt there will be many willing to repay anyway, then to get more in the ground re introduce the ticket promotion and there will be others in the ground who could nt make it on sat, simple really, isn't it. Are the club thinking of charging the season ticket holders? For the re arranged fixture ? Wonder if Clegg is thinking of it? After all does that make those who can only get to occasional games less important?

Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate. The life blood of any football club is the fans and you can't afford to alienate them. At the game on saturday I was pleased to see groups of young lads between 9-12 years of age being handed out their tickets by there older group leaders.
These young lads and many others are our future supporters and were probably there due to the discount tickets.( the only way families with kids can afford to see football. Why should these people have to find extra money due to the incompertecn

Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate. The life blood of any football club is the fans and you can't afford to alienate them. At the game on saturday I was pleased to see groups of young lads between 9-12 years of age being handed out their tickets by there older group leaders.
These young lads and many others are our future supporters and were probably there due to the discount tickets.( the only way families with kids can afford to see football). Why should these people have to find extra money due to the incompetence of inadequate adults who can' t make sensible decisions,whether to start a game in the first place or call a game off for 7 yards of so called frosted pitch. I'm a season ticket holder and will not pay to the rearranged game if I have to pay ANY costs. For once ITFC think of your fans, present and future ones!!!

Sorry about the unfinished post beforehand.

My problem is the lack of information , if the ticket stubb says 50% then thats it . The real problem is a chief exec who sounds like he really has not got a clue , if he had referred to terms and conditions printed on the ticket and laid down by the club in his interview and then said a further goodwill gesture will be looked at on monday most of us would have understood. Boro have made their announcement where is ours ? Does Clegg go to work in the morning ? How difficult can it be to make a decision , hopefully this delay means we are deep in negotiation for a centre half for tuesday night ? One can only dream !!

Paulc (above) and a number of others. I couldn't agree more. It's not a question of what is legally correct (although even what the legal obligations are seems to be in dispute). As Paulc says this is a "a fantastic oppotunity for Clegg to try and make some amends" when the club is supposed to be trying to keep old fans and attract new ones. Customer satsifaction is paramount in business. Dissatisfied customers - no business! Once we were a family club, like our feathered friends up the road.

What Town should have done is left the cover off and then the match would not have taken place at all.

O no wait

Town are are a joke they made no effort to get the game played, I cant make mid week games, I am a season ticket holder so I want £1000 in compansation as i had to go shopping with the misses Saturday blah blah blah blah blah

Ipswich will never win with some so called supporters wish they would go watch Norwich as they are so perfect and do everything right in their eyes.

Um, am I missing something here? There's a lot of moaning going on and people seem to think Boro are doiung something wonderful here. get real and look at the facts!

ITFC have already said they will pay 50% of the entrance fee for all the 19,000 odd fans. Boro have now said they'll match it by paying the other half for their 800 fans.

Who's doing the most here - Boro or Town?

Attention Mr Sorry - I see the point you are trying to make, but it doesn't hold water. We are not talking about courses at a restaurant, a book delivery, or a film at the cinema, all of which are under "controlled conditions" (with the possible exception of let's say "freakishly cold" and "snowy" weather preventing a company from delivering your books :).....we are talking about the weather, which is obviously, completely out of the control of the club.

If i'm being totally honest, I think anybody who believed that a game was going to be playable, when local temperatures had been registering between -12 and -13 degrees, needs their head examined and that goes for ITFC, the ref, the FA and any fans that bought a ticket near the time.

I have seen just about every game this season(I live in london), but I was 99% sure the game would be off, so didn't even bother travelling. I was amazed that it was declared "on" before kick off and equally unsurprised that it was abandoned.

If its an entertainment business the club will be providing more than 90 minutes worth if you watch the next game are fans willing to pay more for the extra 37 minutes ?
If it was a meal you would pay for the extra course , a film in two parts you would pay for the second part .
If you attended and dislike paying for another ticket ,then simply dont do it( you have a choice ) and leave it to those who are willing to and will be attending

Hold on , Boro are only " looking at ways " to arrange free travel , this is not def info yet .
Dont forget it was Mogga moaning at the 4th official for 37 minutes that got the match called off.
Boro should pay for their own fans , ITFC went to great efforts and expense to get the game on.

Well done to a decent well run club with a good manager.

Good on "Boro. Lets hope that all those hardy souls who made the long journey down can attend the replayed fixture. Take note Mr Clegg. ITFC was envied years ago & admired all over Europe for the way it was run & it,s sense of fair play to supporters & all teams who came to Portman Rd. I,m saddened that this ethos no longer appears to apply with our faceless owner & clueless CEO.

How about the Middlesbrough coaching team, who were whining in the ear of the fourth official and linesman from the word go until it was called off, pay their fans' travelling costs?

One team wanted the game on, the other didn't. For obvious reasons for anyone watching the game. Don't give me this hard luck Boro fans line and aren't they a smashing club when they were the ones desperately trying to get the game called off. Any of the suckers on here buying into it need their heads examined.

Is this the EADT comments forum? Some of the bleating is so high pitched even dogs can't hear it

@SpivvySpackyChops: a cinema could conceivably have an unforeseen projector problem, a fire and evacuation, all sorts of things beyond their control. The degree of control the club has is irrelevant. Businesses don't get to turn round and tell their customers "dreadfully sorry, we didn't give you what you paid for, but if you'd like to pay us again, we'll be sure to provide it for you".

Oh, and @Surco72 In what world is 37 minutes of a football match, entertainment? Just watching people play football for a bit isn't, in itself, entertaining, it's the context, the development of the match and the conclusion that constitutes the entertainment. The first 37 minutes of the match are going to be replayed, rendering the part of the game already watched, completely void. The people who paid and went, now have a choice between shelling out £30 for one game, or £20 for nothing other than the pain in the arse of getting to Portman Road.

Spivvy spot on. Too many on here just spin everything into anti Clegg. Fascinating to read, but oh so sad.

well done boro I guess that will fuel the arguments/comments on here

I think we should pay for the Boro fan's travel. There's been a metric-tonne of bad press, they were even discussing us last night on 5Live.

Sort the Town Fans, sort the Boro fans, earn loads of respect and goodwill and then go on to tonk them 3-0...

Cheers