Key facts
- Manchester United banned 685 season ticket holders for reselling seats.
- The club sanctioned or warned 464 supporters following a ticket touting investigation.
- Bans were issued where there was significant misuse of the ticketing system for financial gain, including organized ticketing networks.
- The club stated that innocent fans have not been punished and that hundreds of touts have been banned.
- The 1958 fan group plans a protest before the Manchester derby, citing ticketing issues.
- The Manchester United Supporters Trust expressed unhappiness, stating considerable damage has been done to trust between the club and its supporters.
Manchester United has banned 685 season ticket holders and sanctioned or warned 464 supporters as part of a crackdown on ticket touting. The club initiated its investigation in July, which led to protests from fans concerned about potential confiscations. While the club acknowledged causing distress and amended warning emails, they defended their actions as necessary to combat touting.
According to the club, 468 cases were resolved with no further action after supporters provided satisfactory explanations. A further 226 accounts received a final warning for misuse not for financial gain. An independent appeals panel reduced 238 season ticket bans to a lesser sanction where financial gain was not sufficiently evidenced. However, 499 cases resulted in a season ticket ban being upheld for one season, with 73 cases resulting in a ban without appeal, and 113 tickets banned due to no response to information requests.
The club stated that innocent fans have not been punished and that the action has broken up large-scale organized networks. However, fan groups like 'The 1958' and the Manchester United Supporters Trust remain critical, citing a lack of apology, distress caused to loyal fans, and insufficient evidence disclosure. The Supporters Trust noted that considerable damage has been done to trust between the club and its supporters.
Manchester United insists the motivation was to make more tickets available to genuine fans and that the club is not profiting from the process, as sanctioned tickets are sold at season ticket prices on a match-by-match basis.