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Manchester United are determined to remove more than 600 tickets to their Premier League clash with Chelsea over ‘police concerns’ as the club’s supporters consider taking legal action over the disruption
- Manchester United are ready to remove 624 tickets from their clash with Chelsea
- United were initially allocated 2,994 seats for the fight at Stamford Bridge
- Metropolitan Police reduced that to 2,370 due to ‘police concerns’
- The match was postponed due to a police shortage surrounding The Queen’s funeral
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Manchester United plan to remove 624 tickets from the end at Stamford Bridge in the next 24 hours prior to their Premier League clash with Chelsea.
The competition will now take place on Saturday, October 22 at 5:30 PM.
United had sold their allotment of 2,994 tickets, but the Metropolitan Police wanted to reduce that to 1,500 due to police concerns.
Manchester United to solve how to remove 624 tickets for upcoming Chelsea game
A fee of 2,370 has now been agreed after United appealed, but the club is unhappy and believes the cut is ‘unjustified’.
However, the Red Devils are inviting fans to cancel and offering incentives is a preferred method than going straight to a lottery system, according to the athletic.
The same source suggests that emails have now been sent to 2,994 United fans who have been ticketed to the Chelsea game. Voting will be held for the Stamford Bridge game.
The match was originally postponed due to a police shortage surrounding The Queen’s funeral
IDs are required to collect tickets on the day and fans unable to attend can instead get a transfer for an away game against Aston Villa, Fulham, Wolves or Arsenal.
It has even been reported that players’ families and friends may be moved to other seats in the ground to make room.
The decision has led to a outraged reaction from the football community, with Manchester Unites Supporters Trust considering legal action over the disruption of fans who had bought tickets and booked travel in good faith.
“We are consulting attorneys about a potential class action for contract meddling and also a judicial review for what appears to be an irrational decision,” MUST said in a statement.
The Red Devils have reduced their initial allotment from 2,994 to 2,370 due to ‘police concerns’
MUST committee member Oli Winton also told The Athletic: “This sets a terrible precedent for all events, let alone football matches. The police should be guarding a match and not the size of the crowd.
‘The Met was fine with 60,000 spectators including 3,000 away fans at Tottenham v Newcastle at the same time on the same day as that was the original Sky Sports match so what’s the difference here? The final of the FA Cup is also on the program at 5.30 pm.’
The Met did not respond to questions about why 3,000 AC Milan fans were allowed onto Stamford Bridge for last week’s Champions League game, which started at 8pm.
The match was officially confirmed last week, when United issued a letter to United supporters.
In a letter to supporters, United said: “The Premier League has confirmed today that our upcoming away game against Chelsea will take place at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, October 22, with a kick-off at 5.30pm.
More than 3,000 AC Milan fans were allowed to visit Stamford Bridge for their Champions League match
“Over the past few days we have been in talks with the Premier League and Chelsea FC after the Metropolitan Police proposed a reduction in our road allocation due to police concerns.
“The police initially tried to reduce our allocation from 2,994 to 1,500. We have vehemently opposed any cut and have worked with Chelsea to present a range of measures to the local Safety Advisory Group, which we believe the game could have gone safely with our full fan allocation.
“Unfortunately, the police continued to push for a reduction. However, we managed to increase the allocation to 2,370.
“While we are very disappointed with this outcome and believe it to be unjustified, it is clear that it is a final decision.”