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Leicester explain why they won't be doing an open-top bus city parade
By Kim Ekin
Leicester Tigers have explained why they will not be having an open-top bus tour around the city despite winning their first Gallagher Premiership title in nine years.
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Leicester won their 11th title after beating Sarries 15-12 in a thrilling final at Twickenham. A Freddie Burns’ drop-goal with 20 seconds of normal time remaining saw Leicester home, but despite the heroics, they won’t be getting a city parade.
Earlier this week a Tigers fan asked the Mayor of Leicester, Peter Soulsby, if the council would be faciliating the such an event, implying that one wouldn’t be done as it was rugby and not football, to which Soulsby replied: ‘We are up for it if Tigers want to do it. It was an absolutely brilliant victory!’
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We are up for it if Tigers want to do it. It was an absolutely brilliant victory!
— Leicester City Mayor (@CityMayorLeic) June 23, 2022
However there’s a snag: Leicester simply don’t have the players available. As many as 12 players are away on international duty, while many other players are enjoying a well deserved holiday abroad during rugby’s relatively short off season.
A spokesperson for the club explained the situation in a statement given to Leicestershire Live:
“We would love to be able to share the team’s success with the Tigers community and thank our magnificent supporters personally. Their contribution is key to everything the team does on the field and they play a huge part in the season home and away.
“We are also thankful for the support of Sir Peter Soulsby and the Mayor’s office for suggestions of a celebration event. The rugby calendar, however, means we already have a dozen players away on international tours which begin within a couple of days of the Gallagher Premiership Final and the rest of the playing squad are on their contractual summer break, meaning we are unable to get everyone together again at this point.
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Scotty got a yellow and Byrnsey fixed it all, from Exeter to Sale, we won it F******g all… ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ ? pic.twitter.com/PFn8ycmG3i
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 24, 2022
“Players return for pre-season training at different points of the summer, depending on their commitments elsewhere, and then we are very quickly back into the new campaign.
“We are taking the Premiership trophy on tour to Tigers events throughout our region this summer and creating opportunities for supporters to have their own photos with it, including at the Family Fun Day event based at Mattioli Woods Welford Road and the plaza next to the new Hotel Brooklyn next Saturday, July 2. We look forward to welcoming those supporters back to Tigers for the start of the new season.”
In 2016 the Leicester City FC had a parade after somehow winning the English Premiership, an event which was attended by tens of thousands of fans. They also did one in Bangkok, Thailand.
additional reporting PA
