Manchester United fans are reportedly planning a large-scale protest outside Old Trafford following a recent ticket price increase.
The club announced the sudden price hike for official Man United members earlier this week, removing the concession discount for all ticket options, which means that no matter your age or accessibility needs, games will cost £66 for the rest of the 24/25 campaign.
Seemingly decided overnight, the changes have been put into immediate effect, meaning from now until May 2025, adult fans looking to grab a standard ticket to the match will have to pay an extra £16 for the pleasure – the last thing people want to hear during the festive period and wider cost of living crisis.
As a result of the steps taken by the higher-ups, the official Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) has issued an official statement, calling the decision “offensive” and warning that this could signal something bigger and more severe next season. Not unlike the club, one group is acting now.
As an associated member of the FSA and together with Everton supporters group, we will be protesting (peacefully) on Sunday before the game to support their current #StopExploitingLoyalty… pic.twitter.com/tT1cKYUbkW
Supporters group The 1958, who helped spearhead the most recent slate of anti-Glazer demonstrations. between 2021 and 2023, say they contacted the club to ask for permission to bring a banner reading ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty into the crowd but “unfortunately they didn’t even have the courtesy to reply.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Having “demanded” the ticket price increase be reversed, they sent an extensive letter to the club this week; in an effort to remain transparent, they shared the correspondence in full on their website.
Addressing recently appointed CEO Omar Berrada (formerly of the City Football Group) directly, the letter expressed, in short, their “anger and disappointment” over the new prices, labelling it “exploitation of our loyal fan base”, highlighting the new obstruction to not only young but pension-age and disabled supporters as a “disgusting low blow”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Suggesting that this could start a trend of fans ultimately being forced to sell their season tickets only for them to be immediately resold at a higher price, they described the strategy as ‘corporate touting’ and “the first step towards dynamic pricing”.
As a result, although United are set to play in the Europa League on Thursday night, the crucially peaceful demonstration outside the home ground will be held with associated members of the Football Supporters Association (FSA) and Everton fans before their Premier League game this weekend.
The new flat-rate Man United ticket price which has sparked protest plans. (Credit: screenshot)
To put this into context, these new minimum prices mean that it would cost a grand total of £132 just for a parent to take their child to a match this season, and all of this inflation has happened without any consultation with supporters’ groups.
ADVERTISEMENT
As for MUST, they called out the club’s insistence that 97% of this current season’s tickets are now sold, questioning the veracity of this claim and also going on to share the fear “that this is only the opening salvo of what will surely be massive pressure to implement a significant price rise for next season.”
With INEOS having carried out a raft of cost-cutting measures, including getting rid of 250 members of staff – which is also said to have cost them £8.6 million in redundancy packages – the is clearly part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co. plans to streamline the business which is still approximately £867 million in debt.
Nevertheless, it now looks like fans are the next to pay for the policy and although will no doubt be lofted by the arrival of their new manager, Rúben Amorim, until results improve and prices are reduced or at the very least frozen, it’s looking like it could be another fraught period at the Theatre of Dreams.
Urgent discussions! It needs more direct action than that, call a boycott or a protest march.
Manchester’s National Football Museum to screen England’s Euro 2025 matches for free this summer
Emily Sergeant
England’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 matches are to be shown on big screens for free in Manchester this summer.
As England women’s national football team look to retain their title and continue to build on their ever-growing success as one of the best national football teams in the world, Manchester‘s National Football Museum is set to host a series of family-friendly watch parties after hours for the UEFA Women’s Euros this summer.
Visitors of all ages are welcome to support and celebrate England as they kick-off their campaign against France in the group stages on 5 July, followed by matches against the Netherlands on 9 July, and Wales on 13 July.
As Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses head to Switzerland with the hopes of being crowned European champions, you can head to the National Football Museum for some safe and inclusive fun.
Not only will the matches be shown in all their glory for free on a big screen, but you can also expect an on-site bar, and even the option to pre-order pizza ahead of time to feast on while you’re watching the action.
Watch parties will be taking place at the National Football Museum on the following dates:
France v England – 5 July at 8pm
England v Netherlands – 9 July at 5pm
England v Wales – 13 July at 8pm
To mark the beginning of the tournament, the museum will also be hosting a vibrant weekend of events on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July, so get ready to strike a pose in Lionesses’ kits, create your own dazzling banner, and drum-up support with your very own chant.
Manchester’s National Football Museum is screening England’s Euro 2025 matches for free this summer / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
“This promises to be an exciting summer for football,” said Tim Desmond, who is the CEO of the National Football Museum.
“We want to bring the powerful sense of community that tournament football delivers to our museum, helping both new and returning visitors understand why football matters, and witness the impact our pioneering Lionesses can have in inspiring generations of budding young footballers.
“That’s why we are so delighted to be able to offer watch parties for this year’s tournament, providing a safe, inclusive, and exciting place for all fans to cheer on England.”
Featured Image – Molly Darlington / The FA (via England on Facebook)
Sport
Manchester City confirm fourth signing of the summer as spending spree continues
Danny Jones
Manchester City have officially revealed their fourth signing of the summer window after confirming the transfer of top target Tijjani Reijnders.
The highly sought-after Serie A midfielder joins the club from AC Milan on a five-year contract for an initial fee of approximately £46.5 million, after having been tracked by a number of clubs across Europe over the past season or so.
Reijnders, 26, registered 15 goals and five assists from central midfielder last season (more than any other player in the league) with Italian football journalist Mina Rzouki stating that he models his game on Kevin De Bruyne, making him the perfect replacement for the Belgian – on paper, at least.
Finally unveiled on Wednesday, 11 June, he is arguably the statement signing of what looks to be a continued spending spree which began back in January.
With Man City splashing roughly £200m to kick off the 2025 calendar year as they brought the likes of Omar Marmoush and a trio of defensively geared players in Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and CDM Nico Gonzalez, it seems like they started as they mean to go on.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak assured fans that the club would be picking up “several players” in a recent interview after he argued they hadn’t been aggressive enough last summer, and given that the current main window hasn’t even been open for a fortnight yet, we’d say he’s sticking to that promise.
This year actually marks a rare instance of the transfer window being broken up into two parts due to the FIFA Club World Cup (which City are among the favourites to win) and will then re-open on 16 June.
Nevertheless, the Blues look to have got plenty of their business done already, not only with the arrival of Reijnders but the acquisition of left-back Rayan Aït-Nouri earlier this week, plus another attack-minded midfielder, Rayan Cherki.
The second player of Algerian descent and the second signing of the summer window was quickly announced by the Man City social media team just before the Dutchman.
Along with the signing of a new shotstopper, Marcus Betinelli from Chelsea – set to replace former reserve goalkeeper Scott Carson, who left the club after six seasons on Monday – that makes it four new incoming already.
Once again, not only do these latest additions to Pep Guardiola’s squad take their transfer total to over £300m on new talent in 2025, but there is still plenty of time for City to sign even more players with the summer window not closing until 7pm BST on 1 September.
Although the club have now acquired all of the players they have been most publicly linked with so far, it’s unclear whether their spending will continue or if the focus now turns to the Club World Cup getting underway this month and preparing the current squad for next season.
What do you make of Man City‘s latest recruits? Don’t forget, there have been some new arrivals in the backroom as well.
Danny Jones -
28th November 2024 
