County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.

County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 13 JULY 2007

The implementation of a compulsory automatic cup ticket scheme (ACS) has been widely condemned by thousands of Manchester United supporters as well as the major independent supporters’ groups MUST, IMUSA and the fanzines.

Now MUST is backing legal action being taken by one of its members against Manchester United over what many season ticket holders at Old Trafford see as an unfair move to force them to join the ACS, in addition to paying a 13-14% price rise on their season tickets next season. On top of steep rises for the last two seasons, it means that many season ticket holders will be paying well over £1000 a year to watch games at Old Trafford, more than twice what they were paying 2 years ago.

County Court papers were served on Manchester United Football Club Limited last week and they now have until 19th July to respond (either admitting or defending the claim) before a date is set for the hearing.

Many supporters cannot afford this kind of increase and the anger among United season ticket holders is growing at what they see as an abuse of their loyalty to the club over many years. Being forced to buy up to £500 worth of additional home cup tickets, whether or not they can actually attend the games (e.g. midweek, school nights for kids), has triggered this anger. Up to now the cup scheme has been voluntary. The change has stirred one season ticket holder to take legal action based on what he regards as a clear breach of contract but MUST has a list, already over 100 and growing daily, of others interested in pursuing similar claims..

MUST has engaged a law firm, Underwoods, to help with initial advice on mounting a class action on behalf of aggrieved ST holders. MUST is also talking to another major City of London firm on ways of challenging the compulsory ACS but as such an action is complex and potentially expensive, the quickest and most cost effective route initially is to support an individual member's claim in the County Court.

The purpose of this is to test the legality of the compulsory ACS through an action alleging (i) breach of contract; and (ii) in the event that the contract is not deemed to be breached, that it is invalid and unenforceable to the extent it requires compulsory ACS membership. The individual taking this legal action is MUST member John Mayall, who renewed season tickets for himself and his son in May at a cost of £1444, receiving confirmation shortly after that his purchase had been successful and that the tickets would be delivered in June. About one week later United wrote to him refusing to supply the paid-for tickets unless he joined the ACS, which would commit him to purchase cup tickets for all home matches at unspecified cost likely to amount to hundreds of pounds. Mr Mayall and his son have not joined the ACS and United officials have been unmoved by his efforts to persuade them that he and his son will not be able to go to midweek games due to cost and school commitments.

We have also heard of similar issues from Irish United fans where it is impossible for them to attend mid-week cup games due to the distance and yet United is unwilling to make any exception to the compulsory nature of the cup scheme. United say that fans can sell their tickets if they do not want them, but if it were that easy to sell them United would not be forcing fans to buy tickets they do not want in the first place. Additionally you can only sell the tickets through United's own system Viagogo - on which they make a profit! Viagogo adds on a charge of about 25% so the seller gets less than they paid and the buyer has to pay more than face value too. Furthermore supporters cannot sell their tickets on Viagogo until United have sold all of their own remaining tickets first. Therefore it will not be available for unpopular midweek matches that don't sell out - exactly the matches where most people would wish to sell the unwanted ticket that the club have forced them to buy. So supporters end up paying for tickets they didn't want and cannot sell and the Glazers have the money in the bank.

Many other fans have joined the ACS under protest, while we understand that over 6,000 fans have not renewed their season tickets at all next season. Those renewers who refuse to join the ACS have been threatened with cancellation or invalidation of their season tickets. We believe all of these fans may have grounds to take action similar to Mr Mayall.

Success in this legal action, and others which will inevitably follow, could ensure that the ACS remains voluntary for all season ticket holders, which would be a victory for loyal fans who feel that they are being exploited by the Glazers to help pay the family’s debts. It could also undermine the Glazers’ efforts to refinance their debt by issuing a bond secured on stadium income (including ‘guaranteed’ ticket income from the ACS) as the banks will shy away from any controversy which jeopardises this revenue.

United say that this system is fairer than at some other clubs where you pay for all cup games up front. That is irrelevant - just because some other clubs are exploiting their supporters loyalty to an even greater degree it doesn’t make it any better for Manchester United supporters. Furthermore United have not so far come clean on what the cup tickets will cost, but they expect fans to sign up agreeing to buy them.

MUST member John Mayall says: “United are threatening to stop me and my son from attending premiership games using the season tickets we have already bought unless we also join the automatic cup ticketing scheme. This would add hundreds of pounds each to the £1444 I have already paid for our season tickets. It’s disgraceful."

"I think the ACS (Automatic Cup Scheme) should be renamed the BCS - the blank cheque scheme. They expect fans to enter into a contract obliging them to buy all cup tickets for all three competitions without knowing what they will cost. In my understanding they could charge outrageous prices for these tickets after fans have signed up and there is nothing they could do about it. I think the OFT should look into this".

“If the Glazers think unwanted tickets for evening cup games would be that easy for fans to sell on through Viagogo then I don’t understand why they are trying to force us to by them in the first place. Why don’t they just sell them themselves?”

MUST Chair Nick Towle added: “As a supporters trust, MUST is responding to the anger of match-going members who have asked us to do something about this decision. We don’t recommend legal action against our club lightly, but attempts to change minds about this have been brushed off. This decision clearly comes from the Glazers, against the advice of senior management we understand, so that they can get fans to pay off more of the debts they took out to buy the club. This shows contempt for many thousands of loyal Reds who have held season tickets for years but who cannot now afford them with the cup games on top.”

“We call on United to return to the status quo now and retain the ACS as a voluntary scheme because it is inherently unfair to force fans to buy tickets they do not want or cannot afford. We are supporting this initial legal action and we expect more will be on the way both from individuals and possibly also on a collective basis”.