Ticketless ireland fan ends up on Estonian Bench

by NiallQuinnsdiscoPants Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:59 pm

This is an incredible story.

Meet Conor Cunningham, a Republic of Ireland fan who travelled to Tallinn for the first leg of the Euro 2012 play-off with Estonia last Friday night.

The part-time fitness instructor did not have a ticket for the match and refused to pay the ridiculous prices being quoted by Estonian touts.

Cunningham went to the stadium before the match and spotted an open doorway: ”It was a corridor and a dead end. But I did see a bag of footballs and, when I picked them up, spotted an Estonian tracksuit underneath them.”

He then proceeded to put the tracksuit on over his jeans and Ireland shirt!

Cunningham continues: “I didn’t know what to do, to be honest, so I thought I’d better go into the Estonian dug-out. No one said anything to me and then I realised I was sitting beside their manager (Tarmo Ruutli). It was about 10 or 15 minutes into the match when a UEFA official got suspicious of me. He came over and, after talking to me, told me I had to move.”

After the UEFA official made him move from the Estonia dugout, the 27-year-old then moved into the stands for the rest of the game and celebrated with the delirious Irish players on the pitch.

This did though cause plenty of suspicion as an Estonian team official became suspicious as to why someone in an Estonian tracksuit was celebrating with Robbie Keane, Shay Given and co.

Cunningham added “I was so excited I decided to post a lot of the stuff on YouTube. I still can’t believe what happened, it’s one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”