Star's tickets 'were sold by tout'

Arsenal star Ray Parlour is reported to be at the centre of a ticket touting investigation by his club today after seats bought by him for last weekend's FA Cup tie against Liverpool at Highbury had become available on the black market.

The seats allocated to the England midfielder were in Highbury's Lower East Stand from where ground officials believe the coin which hit Jamie Carragher was thrown, according to newspaper reports.

The Liverpool player was sent off after tossing it angrily back into the crowd and Arsenal have vowed to ban the original coin-thrower for life if he or she is positively identified.

A spokesman said: "We can confirm that Ray Parlour purchased tickets for the Liverpool fixture, some of which he gave to an acquaintance in good faith. We are fully satisfied that Ray has acted properly.

"However, we would like to stress that misuse of tickets is something that the club takes very seriously and in light of this information, a full investigation will be carried out."

Ticket touting was made illegal several years ago as part of the fight against hooliganism and Arsenal have been trying to curb illegal sales.

Parlour, 28, bought several tickets at face value - £26 each - but one was bought outside the ground by Ciaron Cronin, a 21-year-old student from Dublin.

Mr Cronin said: "We bought the tickets from a tout outside Arsenal Tube station and paid £50 each. He seemed to have about 10 in his hand and numbers didn't seem to be a problem.

"I noticed afterwards that the name on the three tickets we had was Parlour."

While Arsenal say that Parlour "acted properly" in relation to the tickets for Sunday's match, players who have been proved to be involved in selling tickets onto the black market in the past have been severely punished.

Andy Impey and Tony Cottee were fined £20,000 and £12,000 respectively in 1999 after it was discovered that tickets allocated to them for Leicester City's Worthington Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur had been sold on the black market. Crowd trouble resulted after fans were left unsegregated.

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