A MASSIVE football fan who missed the 1966 World Cup final due to a sudden illness is now flogging the ticket he never got to use.
Dave Courtney was 13 when he missed the biggest game in English sporting history when he fell ill through being tired from going to most of the tournament’s games.
Dave Courtney missed the 1966 World Cup final due to illness
The 67-year-old footy fanatic was so ill he cannot even remember celebrating the historic win.
Now the retired crane driver is selling the ticket which was returned to him after being given to a stranger to attend instead.
It will go up for auction alongside other 19 tickets from the tournament and the back of a Wembley seat taken on the day of the final.
It is expected to fetch thousands when it goes under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire.
Dave, of Stafford, Staffs, said: “I got up to go to the game but just felt too ill.
“I think I was just tired out because, until that point, I’d been to all the World Cup Group B games which included West Germany, Switzerland, Argentinaand Spain.
“I was at a quarter final match, both semi-finals, the third and fourth place play-offs – and I had a ticket for the final. But I never got to use it – someone else did.”
Football fatigue kicked in after Dave, one of the youngest amateur football managers in the UK in the 1960s, went to four World Cup games in the space of a week just before the final.
TICKET COLLECTION
The busy schedule included two trips to London and another to Everton’s ground, Goodison Park in Liverpool.
He added: ““I got up on the day of the final and just felt totally lifeless.
“I had been travelling to the World Cup games with a Stafford company called Greatrex Coaches and they sent someone round for my ticket when my dad told them I was too ill to make the game.
“Afterwards they returned the ticket to me, minus the stub, but to this day I have no idea who used it.”
The disappoint lingers – 54 years on – but Dave’s 1966 World Cup dream could come to life in another way when his collection of 20 tickets from the event, plus the back of a Wembley seat used during England’s finest footballing hour, come up for sale at Hansons Auctioneers where they are expected to fetch thousands.
Dave added: “I’ve kept the tickets in a scrap book since the 60s, then in 2016, the 50th anniversary of England’s World Cup win, I started collecting other tickets from the 1966 tournament.
“There are 32 World Cup 66 tickets in total and I have 20 of them – plus the Wembley seat back. It was one of only 2,000 removed when the stadium closed in 2000.
“The certificate of authenticity says it was specially installed ahead of the 1966 World Cup.
He is now set to sell his ticket and make thousandsCredit: Mark Laban Hansons
It was the biggest game in English sporting historyCredit: AFP – Getty
“I suppose I could have one of the best collections of football memorabilia relating to the 1966 World Cup. I also have a programme from the event.”
Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons, said: “As a huge football fan myself, this story really tugged at my heartstrings.
“How sad that Dave missed his big day out at Wembley – the 1966 World Cup final which turned into the most significant match in the history of English football.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
