In an effort to subsidise their own fans' travels to Seville, Manchester United are making Sevilla supporters pay an extra £35 to watch Los Rojiblancos play at Old Trafford in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie.
The decision comes after news that the La Liga club were charging United supporters between £89 and £133 for a ticket to the away leg of their Champions league tie.
There were failed talks between the two clubs in an effort to lower Sevilla's price for away fans but after no headway was made, United have responded by upping their own prices.
It's a very sad state of affairs and it doesn't reflect well on Sevilla. United's hike in prices will mean they will be lowering their travelling support's ticket prices to £54, the same amount paid by Liverpool fans in the group stage of their encounter with the La Liga club.
A spokesperson for the Manchester United Supporters Trust welcomed the decision. He said: 'We have been working with the club since the ridiculous £89 price was known to ensure our fans didn't end up paying this much.
Here is the official e-mail from the Manchester club to their fans on the matter:
Further to our recent confirmation that you were successful for the Sevilla away game, we wanted to inform you of a change in what you will be charged for this game.
In this instance we believe that our travelling supporters are unfairly being subjected to increased/excessive ticket prices from the host club. This view is shared generally amongst travelling supporters, and we have received lots of requests from individuals and supporter groups to intervene in this matter.
This has been raised with Sevilla, and internally, but ultimately Sevilla have not agreed to significantly lower the price of tickets for our fans to what we view as a reasonable level. Therefore we have taken the difficult decision to charge Sevilla fans for the return leg at Old Trafford the same amount as our fans have been charged for the away fixture.
We have decided to increase the ticket prices for Sevilla fans for the game at Old Trafford, and use this increase to subsidise our fans, as we want this to act as a deterrent to future opponents who look to increase ticket prices for our travelling supporters.
We will subsidise our travelling support by refunding the difference between the price charged (£89) and the price that was paid by Liverpool supporters in the Group Stage of this year's competition (£54). The £35 difference will be refunded prior to the game taking place.
As a result of the changes to ticket prices for away fans, should we gain any additional revenue after having refunded our supporters, we will donate this to the Manchester United Foundation.
I hope you are looking forward to the game, and we will follow-up shortly with details of ticket collections.
Many thanks for your continued, loyal support.
Sam Kelleher
United are being very sound on one hand but did they really need to hike the Sevilla fans' tickets to fund it?
