A few weeks on from that bitterly disappointing end to one of the worst seasons in living memory, we’re pleased to share an update on what goes on in MUST-world over the close season.
The last few months of the season saw a period of unprecedented busyness, representing hundreds of fans in problems they had with the Club as part of our free ISLO (Independent Supporter Liaison Officer) role. Sadly we couldn’t win them all but we did help many supporters get a better outcome and we’re grateful to the ticketing staff for their help. Although the core work of ISLO is around helping fans with sanctions we were also inundated with issues relating to the new requirements around renewals, ID verification and ST name changes. All too often there are glitches with new systems or new policies are too strictly implemented, causing problems for some fans.
The summer is a slightly quieter period – but not much. In the coming weeks both the Fan Advisory Board and the Fans Forum have meetings with Club officials. Unsurprisingly our agenda will continue to be pushing back on the club’s ham-fisted, counterproductive and deeply unpopular money grabs and instead work on things that will keep match-going affordable and improve atmosphere in the stadium. With a season out of Europe the Club also has an opportunity to fix the system of Euro away allocations which they managed to single handedly destroy last year when they removed the previous collections system in an attempt to cut costs.
Member’s Ticket Match Categorisation
One big issue about to be the announced is what the new “Match Categorisation Model” means in practice. To remind you, from next season all matches will be categorised and the price of members’ tickets will be based on the category applied for each match. This affects a huge number of you and relates to something like 15-20k tickets per home game. In fact, after season ticket pricing it is the biggest pricing decision the Club have to take.
Especially in light of how disastrously last season went, we have stated that, if they are to go ahead with this, then the majority of matches should remain at the “base price” (i.e., no premium applied over and above the normal members’ price) and that only the very biggest games (perhaps Liverpool and City at home) should be designated as “Category A,” to which the biggest price increases should apply.
Unfortunately, the Club has chosen not to consult on the categorisation, so we await the Club’s announcement with the fixture list about to be published tomorrow and ticket sales commencing immediately thereafter.
We believe the Club makes better decisions with proper consultation and while ultimately the Club makes decisions, and we may not agree with them, we have positively influenced those decisions on many occasions in the past. As we have reported previously, the level of consultation and input into ticketing decisions has taken a huge step backwards with the INEOS regime keen to balance the books in the short term. Their drive to save money and raise revenue resulted in many changes with which we disagreed. Hopefully, that experience does prove to be a one-off and if/when performance both on the pitch, and financially, improves, that pressure on ticketing will recede. Either way, we are determined to work through MUST’s direct dialogue and the Fans Forum and FAB to re-establish better consultation which is ultimately good for the club as well as for fans.
Next season is a huge one for Manchester United – we need to rebound from rock bottom and to do so we need the fans and team all pulling together in the same direction. Frankly, the best thing the Club could do would be to abandon implementation of Match Categorisation or at least postpone for a year until we are hopefully in a better place. We don’t expect that, but what they can and should do is implement the new system in such a way that it doesn’t price out regular, vocal members who want to attend as many matches as possible and get behind the team.
We’ll be back in touch once details of the new model have been announced to help you understand what it means for you.
Football Supporters Association (FSA) AGM and conference
The FSA AGM was held in Manchester this year on Saturday 14th June and, as always, MUST was represented.
The new Independent Football Regulator is already operating in ‘Shadow’ form, and we heard from its Chief Operating Officer on work being done in particular, on fan engagement standards. It is hoped that the Football Governance Bill will complete its parliamentary passage in the coming weeks so that the regulator can fully commence by the autumn. MUST had a significant role in the Fan-Led review and the discussions that followed to influence the shaping of the IFR, and we are keen to see this get over the line so we can start to see benefits for our clubs and supporters.
At the formal AGM a number of important policies were adopted by the FSA including:
- Increasing participation and activism from younger supporters (a challenge for all established supporters groups including MUST)
- A proposal for a no-fault stand down policy in response to sexual misconduct allegations
- Support for the pay and conditions of those working in the football industry
- A call for a freeze on facial recognition technology pending full dialogue on legal and privacy concerns
Perhaps the most important motion agreed was to extend the current Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign, which has primarily focused on ticket pricing, to be broadened to cover issues that threaten the football community of regular match-going fans. Those concerns include restrictions on the use of season tickets and match day tickets.
In the afternoon workshops, and the social gathering that followed, we engaged with colleagues from other Premier League supporters groups to discuss the challenges around ticket pricing and ticket usage campaigns, and we’ll be continuing that dialogue to work together on the many issues which impact all fans. We all recognise the risk that the clubs all monitor what each other are doing and will implement ticketing and other policies pioneered at rival clubs, so we want to ensure that the end result is a pursuit of best practice rather than a race to the bottom.
United Voice – Ticketing Policy survey
On the subject of ticketing policy, we have just launched a new survey to gauge fans’ views on the many changes we’ve seen in the last few months and to start the process of setting priorities for the new season. We encourage you to take part here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2025-MUST-Ticketing
Fundraising for Foodbank and Association of Former Manchester United Players
Thanks to the generous support of so many members, we’re about to make our latest payments to our local Foodbank charity. Nowadays, we primarily raise funds through the online Prize Draws and our latest donation will total £6,329 bringing the total raised from draws over the last 3 years to £83,608. In addition to the Foodbank charity support we have also been supporting the Association of Former Manchester United Players (AFMUP) with purchases of some really rare signed artwork prints supplied by Stewart Beckett – Official artist for The Association of Former Manchester United Players. Amongst these we have items signed by Ballon d’Or winners Sir Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best – including one or two signed by all three – as well as prints signed Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo and many other greats. Thus far that totals £8655 to date, and you can already see some of those items on the Prize Draws designated with the prefix AFMUP. If you are interested, look out for some blockbuster prizes being listed over the next few weeks.
So in closing, we want to thank you all for your support over the last tumultuous year and, in the meantime, we hope you’re all having a good summer and enjoying a bit of a break from football. It will come around again soon enough!
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