Football Fans Are Being Undermined.

Manchester City's recent partnership with ticket resale company Viagogo has been met with fan fury and a protest before City's midweek match against Leicester City. The partnership is meant to affect hospitality tickets for both the men's and women's teams but fans fear that this may be the first step on the long road of massive increases on standard tickets and pricing out "legacy" fans. This has been a long-held fear within many fanbases throughout football and partnership deals like these represent substantial cause for concern.

Across many games this season, several clubs have had issues with ticketing in that there have been price increases, less season tickets issued and opposition fans being able to buy tickets in abundance in the home ends. The most obvious instance of opposition fans being in the home end was the Manchester United vs Rangers game in the Europa League this season. A similar situation was allowed to happen by the club last season against Galatasaray in the Champions League, when around 2000 opposition fans were able to secure tickets in the home end. This is a problem for football fans because it shows how rife ticket touting is across football and there is a feeling that clubs are not punishing ticket touters as harshly and the most sceptical of fans believe that their clubs are acting like ticket touters by engaging in partnerships with companies like Viagogo.

Fans taking action against their clubs has been very visible this season. There seems to be a lot of tension between fans and the people running their football clubs, and unpopular decisions like Manchester City's partnership with Viagogo are making fans feel undervalued. There is an argument amongst sections in most fanbases that clubs are looking to reduce the number of average match-going fans and replace them with casual fans who are more likely to spend more money on things like merchandise and/or hospitality tickets. Additionally, raising ticket prices are also seen as a contributing strategy to getting more casual fans to attend games and people are aware of these strategies by their clubs. Atmospheres at football matches are being affected by these strategies and are ultimately diluting the USP of watching football matches as an experience.

It is obvious that football clubs want to capitalise on fans who are more likely to spend bigger amounts of money on their products and services. However, by leaving behind the average match-going fan, clubs are attracting negativity and are seeing their reputations damaged. Despite the copious amounts of money now involved in football, clubs would do well to remember the importance of their fans and making them feel valued!