‘Prices have risen 800% since 1992’: the Premier League fans’ unions campaigning for affordable tickets
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Bitter rivalries are being set aside, as supporters join forces to push back against ‘absolute disgrace’ of cost increases. Some issues transcend the biggest rivalry in the Premier League, as the sight of a Manchester United banner outside the Kop on Sunday underlined. Before Liverpool and United shared a point inside Anfield supporters of both clubs joined forces to make one about rising ticket prices and the attack on concessions in the world’s richest football league.
![[Andy Hunter]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/11/21/Andy_Hunter.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“There is an irony to this,” said the United fan Steve Crompton. “What we are trying to protect is us going into the ground and hating each other for 90 minutes, and yet here we are. This rivalry is part of the Premier League’s product. If you fill the ground with corporates the atmosphere will eventually disappear and so will the ‘legacy fans’, as we get labelled.”.
![[Fans of Manchester United are seen with a banner which reads ‘Local lad Sir Jim charges £66 for OAPS + juniors. Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ as they protest outside Old Trafford]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/eb10e46892a34a55fdcf9d0c1997254145d521b5/0_186_5688_3412/master/5688.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Crompton is the head of media for FC58, an independent coalition of United supporters, and one of six members who travelled through the snow to Anfield on Sunday to protest alongside Liverpool counterparts from the Spirit of Shankly (SOS) supporters’ union. None of the FC58 contingent could get tickets for the game but all wanted to add their voice to the growing demand for Premier League clubs to stop exploiting loyalty, as the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) campaign describes it. “£66 [crossed out] your debt not ours” was the banner aimed at Sir Jim Ratcliffe and United’s decision in November to scrap members’ concession tickets of £40 for adults and £25 for children for the rest of this season.
