Man Utd fans are in uproar over the decision by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS to uproot supporters in some areas of Old Trafford to make way for a new VIP dugout club.
The British billionaire completed a deal to buy 27.7 per cent of Man Utd a year ago as the Glazer family sold part of the club.
It has already been a rocky road for Ratcliffe and his INEOS team with many of their decisions criticised during their first year in charge.
Ratcliffe has announced hundreds of redundancies, cut lunches for staff, cut the ambassadorial wages of three club icons and terminated Sir Alex Ferguson’s £2 million annual salary as a global ambassador.
The Man Utd co-owner also chose to keep on Erik ten Hag in the summer before making a change early on this season, replacing him with Ruben Amorim.
Man Utd announced earlier this week that season ticket prices will be rising by five per cent, which is down from the reported 20 per cent they were going to increase it by.
But the Red Devils have been branded ‘appalling’ and ‘ruthless’ over the decision to move some season ticket holders in order to create premium hospitality seats.
The Daily Mail have accessed an email sent to supporters, it read: ‘We have identified a small number of general admission tickets directly adjacent to the home and away dugouts that will be converted to hospitality seats this summer.
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‘Your current seat is included within this block, and we will therefore need to find you an alternative seat for next season. We appreciate the disruption and inconvenience this will cause, and we apologise for having to move you.’
Those fans displaced will have first choice on available season ticket spaces elsewhere in the stadium but one fan told the Daily Mail: “I’ve sat in the row behind the dugout for 34 years, and I get this email which is a disgrace.
“It’s appalling of the club. The guy next to me has sat there for over 50 years, and he’s told me he’s unlikely to renew at 85 years of age.
“So many memories and now we have to make way for the super-rich prawn sandwich eaters who don’t even support United.”
Another fan commented: “It’s ruthless, and it just seems to me to be walking over the top of us for the sake of money. I’ve been in the same seat for 40 years and paid less than £500 with concessions this season. Now I’m being offered it as an executive club seat with dining for £15,120!
“There are so many fans that are in the same predicament. It has left us all absolutely gutted because we all sit together. It’s quite a community. I’m so disgusted, the club should be ashamed.”
Ratcliffe and INEOS are also ‘facing a backlash from OAP fans’ with some supporters over 66 now likely to pay up to £350 more for their season ticket after their 50 per cent discount was scrapped by the club.
An OAP fan said: “My season ticket cost £475 last season, and next it’s going to be £846-£850 or from £26 per game to £44-£50.
“Sir Jim Ratcliffe is hitting long-standing supporters with massive price rises. It seems he and his board want to get rid of pensioners so they can sell seats at priority prices on the back of OAPs losing out. A lot of pensioners are not going to renew season tickets due to increasing prices.”
Former Man Utd chief scout Mick Brown insists that Ratcliffe recently “defied every basic rule” when calling out some of Amorim’s players as “overpaid”.
Brown told Football Insider: “They keep doing things that prove they don’t know football. There are golden rules at United, and not criticising your own players in the press is one of them.
“That seems to have been completely thrown out of the window. You’ve got players who you’re asking to put everything on the line for you to get results, but you’re publicly slaughtering them in the press.
“You might think it, you might say it behind closed doors, but it should never be done in public. I do not get it, it’s bizarre, it defies every basic rule which has stood the test of time.
“It makes no sense to me, how he can come out and name specific players when he’s talking about them being overpaid when they’re the ones paying them.
“Some of the players are still at the club – how do you want them to react to that? I know in some cases they didn’t make the decision, but it’s hard to have any sympathy for them if that’s what they’re after.”
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