READING FC have apologised to supporters for the Comic Relief red shirt fiasco.

Scores of disappointed fans were left without a limited-edition £5 charity shirt when it went on sale last Friday morning.

Many were unable to purchase one via the club’s website, while dozens more queued for hours outside the Madejski Stadium megastore only to end up empty handed when stocks ran out.

At the same time, some punters bought multiple shirts which they attempted to re-sell online for huge profits when they were intended to raise money for Red Nose Day.

Reading today claimed ‘software provided by our third party merchandise supplier failed’ due to high demand causing a ‘total collapse of the system’.

The club is now asking fans to be patient while staff work through a host of queries and complaints emailed to their merchandise@readingfc.co.uk account before dealing with refunds.

The red shirt design was massively popular among Reading supporters with many on display at Portman Road on Saturday when Jose Gomes’ men secured a nailbiting victory over Ipswich Town.

Here is the Reading FC apology and explanation in full:

“On Friday, we were delighted to raise thousands and thousands of pounds for Comic Relief through the sale of our limited edition red Royals kit. Thank you.

Comic Relief has invested more than £1 billion since its inception in 1985, supporting vulnerable people and communities in the UK and overseas. And proceeds from the sale of this red Royals kit will go directly to the charity to support causes which address mental health, disease and famine, gender equality and education of young people both internationally and at home. So thank you for all your support.

We do, however, fully acknowledge that a number of supporters were left frustrated by not being able to purchase a red kit for Red Nose Day due to severe technical issues encountered when the product went on sale online.

The software provided by our third party merchandise supplier failed. Extremely high demand and malfunctions within the third party software itself led to serious technical problems almost immediately and at 9.22am the products had to be taken off-sale online to avoid any further complications following the total collapse of the system.

Reading Chronicle:

There were massive queues at Madejski Stadium as Royals fans tried to purchase a limited edition Comic Relief red shirt.

With the absence of online sales or live reference to any record of online transactions that had been processed while the system tried to recover, there was consequently a knock-on effect to the volume of supporters hoping purchase in person at the Megastore. We sincerely apologise to those fans who suffered the disappointment of queuing, in person or online earlier that morning, without being able to purchase any of the kit.

The red kit was always ‘limited edition’ - so with a finite level of stock it was always possible that some supporter disappointment would be experienced following such unprecedented demand for what was a very good offer supporting an exceptionally good cause. However, the breakdown of the process online led to frustration and disappointment which should have been avoidable on a morning which was meant to be about goodwill, raising money for Red Nose Day.

With the online system still restoring itself, Reading Football Club staff worked throughout the weekend to begin to resolve the issues experienced by some supporters who tried to make transactions during the short period that online sales were live.

And throughout the course of today and tomorrow, we will continue to decipher very confused online order information supplied to the club by our online merchandise software partner and begin to process orders, fulfilling and dispatching them on a fan-by-fan basis as a matter of priority.

This process will take some time and, as a result, we would like to advise any supporters who opted to 'click and collect' their red kit purchases that this service will not be available until 10am on Wednesday 6th March - still nine days prior to the launch of Red Nose Day.

We would ask any supporter who raised a query via email to the merchandise@readingfc.co.uk account to remain patient as this process takes priority. Any refunds which were required due to the collapse of the online system are currently being issued. Thank you for your patience and support.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported this charitable venture in aid of Comic Relief.”