How I got my ticket(s) to the 2011 Champions League Final

At the start of this year, I booked my flights and hotel to be in London for the Champions League Final next Saturday. Then I found out I was not successful in the UEFA ticket lottery for the neutral fans.

So I said to myself, well it will be fun to be there for the festivities even if I am not in the stadium.

Then I looked around on the internet to see how much tickets were sold for in the secondary market. They were not cheap.

Then at the start of May, I found a man on Ebay listing his ticket in an auction. I took the chance to write to him and asked if he would end the auction and sell me the ticket. I made him an offer.

He came back with a counter offer slightly more. I agreed immediately.

For the next few days, we wrote and spoke daily. We tried to figure out how to exchange the ticket and the money. You see, this man lives in Palermo, Sicily.

When I told some friends about this potential transaction, you can imagine the advice I got. How can I trust a man I have never met and this man is not just Italian, he is a Sicilian.

Then the man came up with a reasonable idea. He would send the ticket to me using UPS Cash on Delivery. I would have to pay the courier the cash when the ticket arrives in Zurich.

The next day, he went to UPS and found out they only do Cash on Delivery with package, not letter.

He wrote to me an email to tell me the bad news. And then an amazing thing happened. He wrote that he trusted me and that he would mail me the ticket and that I could pay him after I had a chance to inspect the ticket.

I was flabbergasted!!! FIFA and UEFA often take my money more than a year before I receive the tickets. And here is a man I have never met and only spoke on the phone to and he would let me have the ticket before paying.

The next afternoon, I got a letter delivered by UPS. I checked and everything was genuine. I got my ticket to the Champions League Final in Wembley.

I transferred the money to his account and told him I will wear the pink Palermo shirt to the game to show my appreciation of the Sicilian way of doing business.

Wembley here I come and Forza Palermo!

PS: one week later, a friend of a friend of me offered me another ticket to the game, but at a better price. So now I have two tickets and have to find someone to go with me.