The club issued a statement as follows:
It was with regret that Middlesbrough Football Club this afternoon announced the cancellation of the fans’ flight to Xanthi.
Last week there were two options for Boro fans wishing to fly to Greece for the second leg of the UEFA Cup tie, but after Flight Options cancelled their flight on Friday, this afternoon TravelCare, who were organising the club’s official flight announced that they too had cancelled.
A clearly disappointed Graham Fordy, Head of Commercial at Middlesbrough Football Club, said this afternoon: “I feel really sorry and deeply saddened for those fans who wanted to go to Greece for the game.
“Last season we ran all the trips to our European games ourselves, but in line with other clubs participating in Europe we franchised our travel arrangements to another company.
“But neither that company, nor Flight Options, are able to offer a service for reasons which are entirely commercial.
“Flight Options did not have sufficient numbers to run their service and it was thought that when they were forced to cancel, that those who had booked with them would transfer to the TravelCare flight.
“But the reality is that not many did and the numbers booked were not sufficient to run their plane either.”
Fordy added: “It is a great shame for the fans that wanted to go that we now have no way of getting them there.”
There are now expected to be fewer than one hundred Boro fans who make the long and awkward trek to northern Greece.