Sunderland football players have offered refunds to their 2,500 fans who made the long trip to watch their side's humiliating 8-nil thrashing in their Premier League match in Southampton at the weekend.
Club captain John O'Shea has confirmed the offer made to fans, some of whom made a 1,000 kilometre round trip, but the refund applies only to the cost of the 24 pound match tickets, and not the cost of travel.
Sunderland football fans Photo: PHOTOSPORT
For every fan who doesn't claim a refund, the squad will donate the cost of the match ticket to a local children's hospice.
Sunderland are 17th in the Premier League league with eight points from eight games and they host Arsenal this weekend.
Meanwhile the Queens Park Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes has apologised to supporters and rebuked the English Premier League club's manager Harry Redknapp and striker Adel Taarabt for their public spat over the player's fitness.
In a statement on the club's website Fernandes called a halt to a row that has escalated since the weekend.
QPR manager Harry Redknapp Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Fernandez says they regret these issues being played out in public and both Harry Redknapp and Adel Taarabt have been notified of their disappointment regarding their handling of the situation.
Redknapp had called former Morocco international Taarabt "about three stone overweight" and unfit after failing to select him for the 3-2 defeat at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
The player hit back at his boss, showing off his physique in the Daily Mail newspaper and claiming the manager did not watch the team training.
Redknapp then replied by branding him "the worst professional I have ever come across".
Taarabt has not started a game for QPR since August.
The promoted side are rooted to the bottom of the Premier League on four points from eight games, with Redknapp's future increasingly called into question.
