By Matthew Jones
December 24 2003

NEWCASTLE United's third round second leg UEFA Cup tie with Valerenga will be confirmed just TEN DAYS before the match - indicating that Uefa do not care about the thousands of Newcastle fans who want to travel.

UEFA GOT TO BE KIDDING!

NEWCASTLE United's third round second leg UEFA Cup tie with Valerenga will be confirmed just TEN DAYS before the match - indicating that Uefa do not care about the thousands of Newcastle fans who want to travel.

As things currently stand today, the game will be played at Valerenga's 25,000 all-seater Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo - and tickets will be started to be sold early in the New Year.

Because of freezing temperatures in Norway - which could plummet to minus 20 during February, Valerenga have admitted that their pitch may not be playable and did offer to play the game at their indoor Vallhall Arena. The Arena holds only holds 5,000 fans and has already been rejected by both Newcastle United and UEFA.

UEFA have told Newcastle that they are quite happy to keep an eye on the weather situation up to 10 days before the tie and will be making descisions at the last minute.

A Newcastle spokesman told the Evening Chronicle: "We expect to be taking 5,000 supporters to Norway for the first leg and most of them will travel by ferry or low cost airlines and they will not be refunded should the game be switched away from Oslo.

"The club itself has to sign contracts for hotel rooms and for aircraft and we stand to lose in the region of 250,000 Swiss francs."

The game is due to be played on Thursday February 26, but because of the worry of bad weather in Norway, UEFA say they will wait until February 16th to decide if it will go ahead.

A Newcastle spokesman told the Evening Chronicle: "We expect to be taking 5,000 supporters to Norway for the first leg and most of them will travel by ferry or low cost airlines and they will not be refunded should the game be switched away from Oslo.

"The club itself has to sign contracts for hotel rooms and for aircraft and we stand to lose in the region of 250,000 Swiss francs."

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