Manchester City fan protest's  interviews with Finn and Simon from 1866 group - video Dailymotion

NicheSportMedia

Manchester City fan protest's  interviews with Finn and Simon from 1866 group  02/04/2025  Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Uk

Transcript

00:00Why are you here tonight?

00:01Because it feels like the club aren't prioritising the local fans.

00:07Like that. Hold it still.

00:10I'm going to need to stick this on as well, because I'm getting too much noise from that.

00:14Right, so Finn, why are you protesting tonight?

00:18It feels like the club aren't prioritising the local fans and it's not good enough.

00:26As in, we get a lot of supporters from overseas and stuff, but when I know plenty of people

00:35who can't get tickets to matches such as United away this weekend,

00:39but you'll see plenty of supporters who have never been to matches before, maybe, getting them,

00:45it's... the ticket policy's a joke, basically, and it's been taken too far.

00:52Does it feel even more difficult, effectively, to give it to a ticket-reselling company,

00:57which is going to then put the prices up even further?

01:00Yeah, that's what it is. So the box standard, as many people know, is £30,

01:06but you could go online and get one for United away for £200, £300,

01:11and that could... whether that's given from the club, we don't know,

01:15but it's... the fact the club just allow it, and it seems as if they're leaning towards

01:21that more of a franchise sort of thing more than a football club.

01:25Times like these where different fan bases can come together for the greater good.

01:30But it's not about the fans, isn't it? It's not about the clubs in your region?

01:34No, no, no, it's not.

01:35We're all being ripped here, aren't we?

01:37Yeah, exactly, and it's... you can put your rivalries to one side for things like this,

01:43you can argue about everything else like on another day or whatever,

01:47but, you know, situations like this, and every club's having these same issues with their own fans,

01:55all the fans are having issues with the clubs.

01:58Do you think the... I mean, we'll come to the ticket prices rising.

02:04The real sour taste seems to be the clubs outing tickets.

02:09Yes, yes.

02:10Whereas what would happen to a fan if you were caught outing tickets?

02:14Well, I think the club, they've employed their own ticket compliance officer

02:19and they're clamping down on fans allegedly touting tickets.

02:24I've no doubt the odd fan does sell a ticket above face value every now and then,

02:27but from what I've heard, they're also clamping down on fans who are selling them at face value

02:31if they can't make a game, you know, just to help another fan out, or even less than face value.

02:34There's been a lot of problems here, hasn't there, recently with the away fans?

02:37Absolutely, yeah.

02:38And a lot of it is probably less to do with fans selling their tickets on,

02:44probably more to do with the club dealing with all these third-party ticket agencies.

02:49You don't get groups of Real Madrid fans together in the home areas of the stadium,

02:53like they did the other week, if fans are all selling their tickets on.

02:58They would be dotted about rather than a group of 10 or 15.

03:02And, you know, in that game as well, the laughing is the Real Madrid fans didn't sell out the away allocation.

03:06There's probably as many of their fans in the home areas than the away end.

03:10When we look at the ticket price rise, what is the percentage here?

03:16I've talked to a lot of pensioners who've been coming for 50, 60 years,

03:22and they go, I only get to one game every six weeks now, I can't afford it.

03:27Yeah, it's hard to put an actual figure on it,

03:29because obviously different areas of the ground increase by different percentages.

03:33But I'd say since COVID, before COVID, I think we did a little bit of research into a few the other week.

03:41My ticket had gone up maybe, I think, 3% in the season before COVID hit.

03:45Since COVID, since the pandemic and fans are being allowed back in the stadium,

03:50my season ticket's gone up like 6% one season, then 9%, then 8%.

03:56So it's definitely gone up a lot more since the pandemic.

03:59Now is that the club trying to get a bit of money back after they lost money during the pandemic?

04:05So what are we looking at? So from 2020 to now, what's the price rise for you?

04:10I'd say overall, my season ticket has gone up by about 30%, 35%.

04:14Which over four or five seasons, people might say, well, it's only 5% one year, 6% the next.

04:21Might be 40 or 50 quid a season for some people.

04:24But it's not that, it's the incremental price increases and they all add up.

04:29At the end of the day, we know that City are a different club to what they were 25, 30 years ago.

04:34They've got a lot of big salaries to pay, they operate on a different level.

04:38So we understand that you can't get into the ground for a tenner for a Premier League game.

04:43But I've heard that Liverpool actually offer £9 Premier League tickets to the local fans, with the Liverpool Pals.

04:49There's not many, but at the end of the day, it's still a gesture, really, for the local fans.

04:54Would you like to see that sort of thing done here as well?

04:57I don't think there'd be anything wrong with it.

04:59It doesn't have to be 10,000 tickets.

05:01We're not expecting 10,000 tickets, but if there was like the 500, like they offer Liverpool,

05:05then it just gives local fans just a bit more of a bite of the cherry.

05:09And I know, obviously, they'll be oversubscribed, but people will get a chance.

05:13Have you had any dialogue with the club?

05:15We haven't spoke to the club directly on ticket prices, probably since last year.

05:21But the City Matters group, which has nine or ten representatives representing different factions of the fan base,

05:28they may be like a disabled rep, a season card rep, etc., a matchday rep.

05:34They're the ones who talk to the club the most.

05:37And the club was supposed to have promised them a meeting about six weeks ago.

05:43It never materialised.

05:45Only after they announced the Viagogo thing last week, later on in the day,

05:49the club did come back and say they'll be meeting the City Matters people actually tomorrow.

05:53So we're going to look at, you know, what the outcome of that might be.

05:57If it's satisfactory, we get a price freeze on season tickets,

06:00maybe a reduction in the cost of some of the matchday tickets,

06:03because they're extortionately priced.

06:05Priced more than Liverpool, believe it or not, on a matchday for adults.

06:10Then, yeah, then obviously, like, you know, things might calm down.

06:13But if we don't get a satisfactory answer and it turns out there's going to be a price increase again next year,

06:18then we're just going to have to escalate things, really.

06:21What possible escalations do you have?

06:24Well, we're going to see what this nine-minute thing does tonight.

06:27You know, it's pretty hard on a midweek game when fans are still pouring into the ground,

06:31you know, a few minutes into the game to gauge how, you know, how effective it will be or how successful.

06:38We'll probably be looking at an extension of things like that.

06:41Maybe people coming off the Cup schemes next year, recommending that.

06:46The Cup schemes, the League Cup scheme, the Champions League Cup scheme,

06:50or it might be the Europa League next year, and the FA Cup scheme,

06:54the voluntary schemes that season ticket holders join.

06:57And it guarantees, obviously, a ticket for every single home game in those competitions,

07:01and you get priority on that.

07:03But it's obviously guaranteed income for the club as well.

07:06So if, say, a couple of thousand people come off that and the club are going to get hit in the pocket,

07:10because that's a couple of thousand more seats to fill,

07:12which might be able to do it on a Champions League game against Real Madrid.

07:15But if it's the League Cup at home to City, Gillingham, they'd struggle to sell all them tickets.

Manchester City fan protest's interviews with Finn and Simon from 1866 group

Category

Transcript

Recommended