Mauro Icardi scored a late winner for Galatasaray at Manchester United
Manchester United’s chief operating officer Collette Roche has admitted the number of Galatasaray fans who bought corporate hospitality tickets for Tuesday’s Champions League game at Old Trafford was ‘unacceptable’.
It became clear huge numbers of Galatasaray fans outside of the actual ‘away’ allocation were present as they celebrated the Turkish side’s surprise 3-2 victory.
In an email to members sent on Friday afternoon, Roche apologised to fans and acknowledged some “felt unsafe”.
The fixture had been deemed a low risk game because the visiting club only took 2,200 of the 4,000 official tickets that were offered.
United are conducting a full investigation into what happened, having initially believed the problem stemmed from touting and sales through official channels, including from season ticket holders and members, to UK-based Galatasaray fans.
While evidence gathered over the past few days suggests ‘bots’ were responsible for the purchase of tickets in one area of the ground, which were then sold on by touts even though on the club’s ticketing system it showed them being bought by official members, United accept a problem occurred from the sale of hospitality tickets, as many fans claimed on the night.
Galatasaray took 2,200 of the 4,000 official tickets that were offered
Traditionally, corporate tickets are not segregated. And, although Roche in an email to members and season ticket holders said the number of corporate hospitality seats had not increased in a decade, the scale of Galatasaray fans buying them created a major issue.
“As with all games, the sale of matchday hospitality isn’t restricted to official Manchester United members,” she said. “Whilst this hasn’t presented issues in the last couple of decades, the volume of tickets accessed by non-Turkish residents who transpired to be Galatasaray fans was unacceptable.”
United have now decided to restrict sales in both general admission and hospitality areas for future cup games to supporters who are already on their database, adding: “Intelligence has already been provided to confirm these aren’t required for Copenhagen, Newcastle or Bayern Munich”, which are the three cup games over the next few weeks that are already confirmed.
The club say the average number of general admission tickets available so far this season has been 19,000 compared to the pre-Covid period when it might have been as few as 2,000.
In addition, Roche says United have “met with our ticketing provider to address the fact that a large number of tickets were bought by a Bot”, although she pointed out it is a “global issue”. United say they are accelerating plans to strengthen the security around digital tickets.
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