St Patrick's Athletic have released a statement after the postponement of Sunday's League of Ireland match against Shelbourne.
The Dublin side are stranded in Bulgaria after a famous 1-0 victory over CSKA Sofia on Thursday evening in the Europa Conference League third qualifying round
Unable to get their initially planned charter flight home, Pat's now hope to get back to Dublin on Sunday morning.
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But after the FAI revealed on Friday night that their League of Ireland clash with Shelbourne had been postponed, Pat have outlined that they were required to hire their own plane rather than use commercial flights.
A Pat's statement read on Saturday morning: "We appreciate the FAI’s understanding of the predicament that we find ourselves in and their sensible decision to call off tomorrow’s fixture.
"Under UEFA regulations, the use of charters is mandatory from the third qualifying round on. Because of the current difficulties in the aviation industry, which are well known, we and our travel brokers have had immense difficulty sourcing charters, the result of which has left the players and staff in Sofia and not in a position to return to Dublin until the early hours of Sunday morning.
"Throughout the week we appraised the FAI & UEFA of our predicament and were grateful for their assistance.
"We understand many fans would have been looking forward to the game, we regret that this fixture is not going ahead as scheduled due to these unprecedented circumstances."
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