Telecommunications company Virgin Media has announced it will reimburse the cost of any English Premier League football fan’s away ticket that costs more than £20 for the month of April.
The Football Supporters’ Federation Twenty’s Plenty scheme to cap the cost of Premier League away tickets to £20 had called on other sponsors to follow suit, which Virgin Media has done.
The company will likely be paying £10 on every ticket, due to a unanimous vote last year, in which top-tier clubs decided to initiate a £30 cap for all away tickets in the Premier League.
“It’s a refreshing exception to see a sponsor involved with football genuinely doing something that benefits fans,” said FSF’s chief executive, Kevin Miles, according to the UK newspaper the Guardian.
“Many commercial sponsors pay lip service to the idea of fans being crucial to the game but in supporting the FSF’s work around away fans in particular, this initiative sets a new standard for actually doing something in practice. Fans up and down the country will now be asking what their own club sponsors can do to follow suit.”
The payback scheme only applies to matches from April 15. The rescheduling of some fixtures due to the FA Cup semi-finals means that fans of West Bromwich Albion, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton and Sunderland will only find out when they will be reimbursed after the new dates are announced.
In order to claim their subsidy, fans can visit the Virgin Media Twenty’s Plenty page after a match, download a form and post it along with their ticket. A cheque will then be sent to them in the following weeks.
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