Allocation of Away Points
The quote below is taken from a recent email from the SSC. It appears 3,000 people haven't yet claimed their point for the Netherlands away game out of 8,000 that requested tickets. This seems to be a very large figure and has led the SSC to drop the requirement for proving proof travel.
The SSC require proof that you actually travelled - a card boarding pass with your name, destination and date on it, a printed receipt from your hotel with your name on it, a letter from your hotel confirming you stayed there. With a large amount of people traveling with airlines that issue e-tickets it's easy to see why so many points have not been collected.
I spoke to the SSC today and explained I'd 2 Ryanair paper based boarding passes, 2 train tickets and 1 bus ticket. Unfortunately they were all unacceptable to the SSC. Ryanair pass could be forged, train tickets don't prove I actually travelled, and bus tickets don't have any names on them. In the end they suggested I send them a credit card statement or credit card receipt from the time of the game. They also said that if you had a stamp in your passport you could travel to Hampden and show it to them!
As you will know, we have recently announced that we will no longer be requiring members to supply proof of travel in order to claim their point for away matches. This decision was taken after it became clear that not only was this system difficult for members to comply with (only 5000 of 8000 people who had an official Netherlands away ticket supplied us with proof of travel), but also it was equally clear that the system penalised the majority in order to try and catch out the minority of members who engage in 'points harvesting.'
We fully understand that the whole issue of members buying tickets for away matches but not actually travelling to the game is something that angers the honest supporters who abide by the rules of the club. When we met with the Association of Tartan Army Clubs at the end of last week, we had a lengthy discussion about what can be done.
In recent years we have tried various ways of tackling the issue. We have tried forcing supporters to pick up their tickets in the country before the match and, of course, we have recently tried proof of travel. It is our strongly held view - and the view of the majority of members who contact us - that supporters want their ticket in their hands before they travel to matches. This means that the time in the foreign country is their own and fans are not inconvenienced by having to travel to an area and often stand in queues to pick up a ticket that they could have had weeks before.
However, even although we will no longer be requiring proof of travel, this does not mean that we have given up on the issue of 'points harvesting.' We still want to eradicate it, but we want to do it in such a way that does not inconvenience the majority of supporters too much.
So, from now on we will be starting a system of 'spot checks' for away games. What this means in practice is that a random section of supporters who have received an official ticket for an away fixture will be contacted and asked to pick up their ticket in the country before the match. We have already selected a large number of supporters who are travelling to Norway for a spot check and if you have been chosen we really appreciate your help in doing this.
We will also be making sure that we are much tougher on members who break the rules when it comes to points. There will be no '3 strikes and you are out' policy From now on, if you are caught points harvesting, your membership of the Scotland Supporters Club will be immediately terminated.
We know that it is a very small minority of supporters who choose to break the rules and we will not take action that we feel is prejudiced against the majority of members just to try and catch out the offenders. This is a huge club and represents what we rightly feel are the greatest football supporters in the world. When someone demonstrates by their actions that they do not deserve to be a member, we will have no hesitation in removing them.
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