The final will be held at the Estadio Olimpico in Seville

A group of Celtic fans who bought tickets before their team reached the Uefa Cup Final have been told their briefs have been sold.

The fans thought they had bought the tickets online from an officially accredited agency with a link from Uefa's website.

But they were sickened to hear weeks later that the agency involved had no record of the transaction.

Uefa said it had not sold any tickets to agencies and was "unhappy" about the handling of tickets for the final in Seville.

One Hoops supporter thought he had bought six tickets before Celtic had even disposed of Liverpool in the quarter-final.

Some of the group from Cardiff had already spent hundreds of pounds on accommodation and flights to Spain ready for the final before hearing they had lost out.

I think the company has oversubscribed and as soon as Celtic reached the final the demand exploded. Gerry McGonagle

They were sure the tickets were theirs after receiving a list of the seat numbers where their party would witness Celtic's first European final since 1970.

But after contacting the agency, ticktackticket.com, to ask when the sought-after tickets would arrive, they were told there was no record of any transaction.

Although the group gave their credit card numbers on the site, no money was taken from their accounts.

One of the party, Gerry McGonagle, treasurer of the South Wales No.1 Celtic Supporters Club, said: "This has happened to us and another group of Celtic fans in London.

"I think the company has oversubscribed and as soon as Celtic reached the final the demand exploded.

Tickets for the final are at a premium

"Someone has realised there was a lot of money to be made out of this.

"They said we should have had a booking reference number but that was not mentioned at the time on the website. As far as we were concerned we did all that was required."

Ironically, one of the group has secured a pair of tickets for the Champions League Final to be played at Old Trafford but no online touts or agencies are prepared to swap them for a Uefa Cup Final pair.

Demand for tickets has fuelled a rampant black market with some touts demanding more than �1,000 per ticket.

Mr McGonagle added: "It's sickening with agencies offering any number of tickets for �500.

"Where are these tickets coming from? The whole thing stinks and real fans are losing out.

"If I was Uefa I'd want to know the source of the black market tickets but they don't seem interested.

'Not happy'

"It looks like these touts are selling our tickets at hugely inflated prices."

In response a UEFA spokesman said: "We haven't sold any tickets to any agencies."

The now ticketless supporters have complained to Uefa direct about the way the sale of tickets to them was handled and their subsequent lack of success.

They have now all been left with no apparent way of securing any tickets and seeing their club in the final.

In reply to the fans' complaints Uefa marketing official Marcello Alleca appeared to hint at problems with the ticketing arrangements and said: "I understand your position and your criticism too.

"We are not happy with the handling of the ticketing for the final at all."