Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) has issued a statement threatening Hammersmith and Fulham Council with legal action due to the reduced ticket allocation for the match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
In a letter written by ITN Solicitors on behalf of MUST, they ask the Council to ‘issue a new Security Certificate for the previous match (Chelsea FC V Manchester United FC) with full ticket allocation for 3000 MUFC fans’.
Currently the allocation for United fan stands at Stamford Bridge is 2,370 due to “police concerns”, which represents a massive reduction in the total allocation of 2,994.
These ‘police concerns’ seem to be supported by the rearranged day and start time. Due to Champions League duties for Chelsea, the game was moved up from 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 23, to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 22, all this despite the fact that the Met does not consider this encounter is “high risk” for problems.
This has led to the threat of legal action by MUST and a spokesperson for the supporters group to say ‘For a supporters trust hiring lawyers is always a last resort, but enough is enough. Tickets have been sold for this game and fans are treated like second-class citizens.’
Man Utd Supporters Trust spokesperson: ‘For a supporters trust hiring lawyers is always a last resort, but enough is enough. Tickets have been sold for this game and fans are treated like second-class citizens. #mufc
— Chris Wheeler (@ChrisWheelerDM) October 13, 2022
The spokesman added: “United fans and football fans in general have had enough of receiving unfair and irrational decisions from councils and the police, who seem to regard us as more of a public order problem than an ordinary one.” people freely enjoying a day out.
Chelsea supporters’ confidence has also backed MUST in this action, though curiously they appear to be having their own battle, with ticket sales for the match currently being postponed due to ‘system issues’ in Chelsea’s ticketing system. .
Certainly, this is not the first time that United fans have received a reduction in the allocation of tickets for away games.
Manchester City have reduced the number of tickets for United fans recently, as have other clubs such as Liverpool, sometimes citing policing as a problem, others, such as City, stating that the persistence of United fans leads to an unsafe environment.
United themselves have cut fan allocations, Liverpool had their allocation cut by 1,000 almost ten years ago due to security concerns.
The fact that MUST is threatening this action shows that they take it seriously and hopefully sets a precedent for other supporter groups to do the same if they feel they are being treated unfairly.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council have 48 hours to reply to the letter, otherwise legal action will be taken.
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