Uefa is set to get involved in the ticket prices tit‑for‑tat between Manchester United and Sevilla in the lead-up to their Champions League last-16 tie next month.
The dispute sparked into life on Wednesday after United sent an email to their supporters outlining their response to Sevilla’s decision to charge £89 to visiting fans attending the first leg at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on 21 February.
Liverpool fans who went to see their team play there in November were charged £54 and, as such, United have decided to not only to subsidise their supporters the £35 difference but also increase the price for visiting spectators attending the second leg at Old Trafford in March to £89.
Sevilla insist they, too, will cover the additional sum for their fans and intend to contact Uefa over United’s cost increase as well as their allocation of only 2,995 away tickets for the return meeting. Uefa’s rules stipulate at least 5% of a stadium’s capacity should be available to visiting fans, yet Sevilla claim United have not offered them 3,800 tickets for security reasons.
“Sevilla will look to guarantee no Sevillista pays a penny more than any Manchester United fan for similar tickets – as competition regulations dictate,” read a statement from the club.
United’s move to charge Sevilla fans £89 came after attempts to persuade the Spanish club to lower their prices failed. In the email sent to supporters who have tickets for the game in Seville, United’s head of ticketing and membership, Sam Kelleher, wrote: “We believe our travelling supporters are unfairly being subjected to increased/excessive ticket prices from the host club. This view is shared amongst travelling supporters and we have received lots of requests from individuals and supporter groups to intervene in this matter.
My word. pic.twitter.com/0z5x0raCbf
— Ste.A (@sarm0161) January 10, 2018
“Ultimately Sevilla have not agreed to significantly lower the price of tickets for our fans to what we view as a reasonable level. Therefore we have taken the difficult decision to charge Sevilla fans for the return leg at Old Trafford the same amount as our fans have been charged for the away fixture. We want this to act as a deterrent to future opponents who look to increase ticket prices for our travelling supporters.”
United pledge any extra revenue will be donated to the club’s foundation.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust has praised the club’s stance. In a statement, Must said: “We have been working with the club since we became aware of the ridiculous ticket price. Our primary objective was to ensure our fans didn’t end up paying this much. We are delighted United have fought our corner on this issue.”
