Napoli fans in Rangers refund for scrapped Champions League trip as airlines pay out after government intervention

Napoli fans who were banned from their Champions League game at Rangers by UEFA will get their flight costs refunded after the intervention of Italy's Foreign Minister. Rangers fans will be prevented from attending the group stages match in Italy next month because of 'sporting integrity' after UEFA prevented 660 Napoli fans from going to Ibrox for last week's game, which was rescheduled due to policing issues arising from the death of the Queen.

At least a couple of thousand Rangers supporters would have been expected to travel for the match at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona and most would have already booked flights and hotels for their penultimate game in the group on October 26. And they will be interested to learn that their Italian counterparts have not only had their tickets refunded by Napoli, but their flight tickets to Glasgow will be refunded by EasyJet.

Italian government minister Luigi Di Maio wrote to both EasyJet and Ryanair pleading with the airlines to refund the Napoli fans who were travelling to Scotland and his intervention has worked. And EasyJet's Italian operations base responded by stating: "All passengers, who were unable to travel due to changes to scheduled events in the UK as a result of the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, were given the opportunity to contact our customer service to discuss any options, which will be assessed on a case-by-case basis."

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