Airport scrooges will let TV pundit Dean Saunders off £1,000 parking bill… but only if Wales win the Euros
Ex-Liverpool star had left his car in a £100-a-day 'short stay' car park because he didn't expect Wales to last so long
AIRPORT bosses have promised to refund a £2,000 parking bill for BBC football pundit Dean Saunders — if Wales win Euro 2016.
The former Wales and Liverpool star left his Mercedes jeep in a short-stay airport car park after the BBC asked him to work as an analyst for the country’s first two games in the international tournament in France.
He has already clocked up a £1,000 charge but now faces a bill of up to £2,000 at Birmingham Airport after Wales made it to the semi-finals by dumping Belgium out of the competition on Friday night.
Saunders, 52, said previously: “I tell you how confident I was with Wales. I parked in the short-stay car park at Birmingham two weeks ago. I took a little suitcase that fitted in the cabin so I’ve run out of clothes and now I’m going to have a £1,000 bill when I get back to Birmingham because they charge you a fortune.
“That’s how confident I was and I’m still here two weeks later. But I’m just happy to be here.”
Saunders has been giving his views on Wales’s stunning displays with fellow pundits Rio Ferdinand and Alan Shearer during live coverage hosted by Gary Lineker.
Yesterday the airport learned of his predicament and tweeted Dean’s son Callum, also a footballer with Crewe.
They told Callum: “We can’t get more clothes to him but tell him if Wales win we’ll waive the parking charge!”
The scrooges added that if Saunders had pre-booked his parking, it would have cost him just £184.
Saunders had tears in his eyes on Friday night as he worked as a pundit for the game, which pulled in 13.5million viewers for the BBC.
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He was a tricky striker during his playing career and netted 190 goals over 19 years for a host of clubs including Liverpool, Aston Villa, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Swansea City and Oxford.
Saunders also earned 75 caps for Wales and slotted home 22 goals — including a famous winner over Brazil in a 1991 friendly.
He hung up his boots in 2001 before managerial spells at Wrexham, Doncaster, Wolves, Crawley and Chesterfield. He once told journalists at a Wolves press conference: “I’ve never been sacked before and I will not be sacked here.”
He was given the boot from Molineux months later.