THIS WEEK IN 1990: Nightmare trip for young football team
A teenage football team from Portsmouth said a dream end-of-season tour turned into a nightmare.
The £10,500, five-day trip to Germany, was a present to members of Solent United Lads FC from parents and fans for winning the Hargreaves Lads League.
But when the 60-strong party of parents and players arrived they found: a hotel they said was like a German equivalent of Fawlty Towers with rude staff and none of the football teams Solent expected to play had turned up, the travel company’s courier had never visited Germany and could not speak the language, and the travel company’s itinerary took no account of journey times so youngsters had to miss all leisure trips just to be at fixtures which proved to be non-existent.
Parent John Green, 41, of Copnor, who arranged the trip said: ‘It has been the biggest fiasco imaginable.’