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An ‘armchair football fan’ from South Bristol who said he has not been to a game for years has been left baffled and upset when his ticket for Saturday’s big game at Ashton Gate was withdrawn by Bristol City.

Officials at Ashton Gate told Craig Courtice they were giving him a refund and told him his ticket was no longer valid.

The 54-year-old said he supports both Bristol City and Leeds United but - until this week - did so only from in his front room watching on telly.

But his love of the Yorkshire team as well as his local side means he has now found himself barred from the game, following a review by both clubs of who had bought tickets for the game.

The match is the first complete sell-out of the season for Bristol City, as they face up to promotion favourites Leeds United in City’s battle to maintain their own play-off spot.

In previous seasons there has been isolated incidents of disorder at Bristol City v Leeds United matches - mainly caused by Leeds fans getting tickets in the three sides of the ground that are for Bristol City fans.

This time, the efforts by both clubs to stop this happening were redoubled - to comply with league rules which stipulate no ‘away’ fans should be in the home fans’ areas of the ground.

Both clubs acted after they heard that hundreds of Leeds fans had bought tickets in the City fans' parts of the ground.

That meant City provided a list of people who bought tickets when they went on general sale online, who had never bought tickets online for Bristol City matches before.

Mr Courtice, who last went to Ashton Gate in the 1980s when fans paid a few quid on the turnstile to see the Robins managed by the likes of Terry Cooper and Joe Jordan, came up on that list.

(Image: Bristol Post)

When that list of ticket-buyers was sent to Leeds United, to cross-reference it with Leeds’ database, Mr Courtice’s name came up as someone who was recorded as having been to a match at Elland Road before.

Mr Courtice said: “I am from Stockwood, I am a Bristol City fan, and I am also a fan of Leeds United.

“But I haven’t seen Leeds since God knows when, for years and years.

“I’ve just come out of hospital after having surgery, I’ve been having a really bad time of it this year, and I thought I would get a ticket to kind of celebrate being discharged from hospital."

Watch below: Interview with Craig Courtice, Leeds and Bristol City fan

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He added: “I got a ticket in the Dolman Stand - I was really lucky because there were only 54 tickets left at the time I bought one.

“I wanted to take my daughter, as she is a big Bristol City fan, but when I went back to get another they’d sold out."

Mr Courtice said he couldn’t understand why, or even how, his unusual dual support for both teams was an issue.

He said that, sitting in among the City fans in the Dolman Stand, he would be cheering on Bristol City.

“If Leeds scored I wouldn’t do anything. If Bristol City scored I’d applaud them.

(Image: Bristol Post)

“I just thought if they had any evidence of me being a hooligan, or been involved in any kind of trouble before, then fair enough.

"But I haven’t been to a football match in years. I just watch it and support them from my armchair usually.

“I couldn’t work it out. I did tweet something about the fact I’d got a ticket, so maybe they saw that."

Craig had suspected that Bristol City had researched his Twitter profile - on Wednesday this week after buying a ticket, he replied to a Leeds United tweet publicising that the Yorkshire club were going to televise the match at their stadium for fans who weren’t making the trip down to the West Country.

He tweeted, replying to a tweet from Leeds United’s official twitter account: “I will be at Ashton Gate on Saturday but in with the City fans I will have to be discreet.”

Mr Courtice told Bristol Live: "All I want to do is watch the game. I'm an armchair Leeds supporter, from Bristol who also follows his local team.

"It's really upsetting."

A spokesperson for Bristol City confirmed it wasn’t the tweet - just simply a cross-reference of names on a database between the clubs - Mr Courtice’s name wasn’t on City’s, but was on Leeds United’s.

“Our head of safety and security received credible intelligence that several hundred Leeds United supporters had managed to purchase tickets in the home end of Ashton Gate.

“We provided a list of people who had never purchased tickets here before at Ashton Gate to Leeds United. They then cross referenced this with their database of supporters.

“Once Leeds United had confirmed these people were on their database a decision was made to revoke all tickets attached to those bookings in accordance with English Football League (EFL) regulations.

(Image: Rogan/JMP)

“The decision to revoke tickets for any match is not one which is taken lightly and we only do this once we have positive confirmation from the opposing club that individuals are indeed on their database,” she added.

Scores of tickets have been revoked this week following that review, and on Friday went back on sale at Ashton Gate - but only to season tickets and Forever Bristol members.