Consider this the first and only time in history former Wimbledon/Jamaica midfielder Robbie Earle will find himself compared to Fred Smerlas. Earle recent position as an analyst for ITV became part of history earlier today when the British broadcaster fired him for his role in a ticket transfer scheme. From the BBC :
ITV said a “substantial number” of tickets for the Denmark v Holland match on Monday had been passed on, breaching Fifa rules.
It has been claimed a block of tickets were used by a Dutch company for an “ambush marketing effort”.
“Following claims by FIFA that official 2010 World Cup tickets may have been used for ambush marketing, ITV has reviewed its entire ticket allocation for the tournament,” the TV network said in a statement.
“Immediate investigations indicated that a block of ITV tickets would appear to have been used for unauthorised purposes during the Holland v Denmark match.
“Further enquiries have revealed that a substantial number of tickets allocated to Robbie Earle for family and friends have been passed to a third party in breach of FIFA rules.”
I’d add details about the ambush marketing in question, but surely you’ve already read about it over at Sports By Brooks?