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Newcastle United supporters will be subject to spot checks away at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium tomorrow (Saturday), to ensure only travelling supporters with legitimate possession of tickets are able to enter the venue.
Those travelling to the Premier League tie have been urged by the club to ensure the name on their match ticket corresponds with a suitable form of ID. Random checks will be carried out by Newcastle United staff.
Supporters that have their entry rejected during the scanning process will be directed to the away box office to be verified, before a ticket is re-issued.
Newcastle said it was taking this step to ensure fairness for fans that bought tickets through the club’s established loyalty points system, and to avoid potential ticket touting. The loyalty points system enables season ticket-holders with the highest number of loyalty points, with one point accrued per away match attended, to gain priority access during the sales window. The threshold is then reduced incrementally on designated days, allowing those with fewer points to purchase any remaining tickets.
A club statement said: “Demand for away tickets is extremely high and the club continues to receive complaints about match tickets being passed on to supporters who may not meet the criteria to purchase, which is against the terms and conditions of sale.
“Ticket holders will therefore need to display suitable photo ID if requested on entry to the Etihad Stadium. Supporters are therefore asked to have personal identification with them at the Etihad Stadium as access may otherwise be denied.”
Fans that have purchased tickets as part of a travel group will still need to show ID if asked, and it has to prove they are a member of their travel group. ID will also be required to pick up any duplicate requests for tickets that have not arrived in the post in time.
If identification does not correspond with the ticket, the original owner of the ticket will have their loyalty points deducted in full. A repeated breach may lead to the original owner’s season ticket being cancelled.
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