Retired boxer Derry Mathews today stepped in to help after many Liverpool fans heading to Paris were left stranded.
Fans turned up at Liverpool John Lennon Airport this morning for their 4am flight only to be told it had been cancelled. Supporters paid around £650 for the flight, sold by tour operator WorldChoice Sports, before receiving a text saying the time had changed slightly.
However, when they arrived at the airport they were heartbroken to find it had been cancelled altogether with no indication as to why. The disappointment comes after a large group of fans were left stranded at the Rocket pub after their coaches due to take them to Paris failed to arrive.
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One fan told the ECHO only about five of the 24 coaches arrived leaving fans stranded and unable to get to the match. The ECHO approached WorldChoice Sports for comment.
Following the news of the flight cancellation, Mathews took to Twitter to offer fans an alternative route of getting to the game.
He posted: "Any fans stranded and let down by coach companies contact me. I have a 17 seater mini bus all insured and serviced, come get the keys and take it. And no I don’t want money for it I just don’t like seeing people getting ripped off by scammers."
The tweet has since received thousands of likes with many fans getting in touch to thank Mathews for his generosity.
Karl posted: "Derry what a great thing to do, hats off mate you didnt have to do that, shows the measure of the man." Neil said: "What a gesture. What a man. Is right Derry"
Tiggana tweeted: "Well in mate, been in JLA since 1am, flight should have been 4am, now cancelled, never use Worldchoice sports again." Jane posted: "That’s brilliant just love our red family always looking out for other YNWA."
Steve Cook, from Formby, booked return flights with Widnes-based WorldChoice Sports the day before Manchester City lost the second league of their semi-final v Real Madrid. The 56-year-old, who has followed the Reds across Europe and was there when the club won in Istanbul, was due to fly out on the 4am flight today with a friend.
Steve told the ECHO : "We got a text through to say the flight time had changed so we just presumed it had been delayed a bit. When we got there it was cancelled. I think there was supposed to be two other flights going after but with three flights worth of people it's difficult to say how many people would have managed to get on.
"There was a rep for WorldChoice Sports there but nobody was giving him any trouble or anything like that. Everybody was angry but everyone behaved themselves under the circumstances. It's not on though - they can't be relied on."
WorldChoice Sports attracted criticism in 2018 after three flights to Kyiv were cancelled ahead of that year's Champions League final. At the time the tour operator said it could not secure the landing slots at the airport.
