Liam

[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

I'll tell you what else is "Suspicious Activity" - selling tickets at hospitality prices, but without the hospitality.

You may have seen Virgin Experience Days selling United tickets without hospitality, which is permitted under the Official Reseller contract.

How is a £500 package for two basic £45/55 East Stand tickets with zero food or drink perks "100% official"?

Follow the money to see who is actually profiting off fans:

- Manchester United: Instead of putting these seats in the general ballot at £45–£60 face value, the club sells bulk blocks to commercial brokers at inflated contract rates (£150–£200+ per seat).

The club makes 3x–5x more per seat while stripping general allocation from real fans.

- Wholesale Brokers: Middlemen buy these commercial allocations from the club, slap on a 20–30% margin, and distribute them to retail platforms.

- Retail Platforms (e.g. Virgin Experience Days): They list the seats, process the transaction, and pocket a 15–25% retail commission.

The result? A match-going supporter pays £250 per seat for a basic £45/60 ticket.

Business after business makes money, whilst the club will threaten Season Ticket Holders with bans for transferring a ticket to a friend at cost, while quietly offloading thousands of standard seats to corporate brokers to make millions on the side. Absolute double standard.

ref: https://t.co/3d09GISibg

[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

This looks more like "suspicious activity" to me than someone logging in to their mate's account to pay for their season ticket on their mate's behalf because he gets his credit card loyalty points or something along those lines...

[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

All in it together. See here: https://t.co/0WfgjBro6d

While my focus this week has been on #MUFC, this is a growing issue right across the @premierleague, and even some lower leagues, and match-going supporters urgently need protection.

Match-going fans are in the minority among the Premier League and broadcasting figures, but we as supporters are the heart and soul of the game.

Whether it's led by mainstream supporters' trusts, the @WeAreTheFSA , or a collective of fan groups, we need a unified response to tackle this before it gets worse.

Supporters deserve better safeguards, and we need action now.

[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

@CansAndBansV12 There is a WhatsApp group between ticketing staff at clubs to discuss such activities, I've been told.

[Katie Ryan @Kate_Ryan86]

This little boy is now 6 and has just had his season ticket banned because as his mum i log in to his account. I can't even tell him because it will break his heart! If they checked my insta all season they would see he rarely missed a game! @TelegraphDucker @AndyMitten @ManUtd

[Steve @CansAndBansV12]

@ManUtd have started sending out the generic emails for the people that have appealed for the second time.

[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

The Latest MUFC Ticketing Sweeps: A Practical Guide for Match-Going Groups

Many more supporters have received emails from the club today. While the tone has been softened compared to previous compliance sweeps, the objective is clear: the club is targeting "super-users" who log into multiple accounts from the same network or device to submit away applications, handle renewals, check ballot results, etc.

My first response to United would be: understand your supporters and how they actually behave. Fans operate in communities, helping each other out and working together. Instead, you've looked at the data without fully understanding the behaviour behind it. Perhaps that's because you've relied on the customer journey SeatGeek provided, but supporters simply don't use the platform in the way it was designed. Yes, there are touts, but it is not clear from the negative responses you're receiving that you've taken the completely wrong approach.

The data analysis strategy makes sense in principle to stop possible touts, but the execution is deeply flawed. For decades, match-going fans have formed close-knit communities. We share logins to manage group away applications, support elderly/vulnerable/non-tech savvy friends and relatives, or, in one instance, I assisted a mate who was travelling abroad and could not bypass credit card 2FA checks; he relied on me to renew his Season Ticket for him. Others handle group renewals purely to consolidate Credit Card loyalty points. That’s clever thinking by the end user, not trying to get around a system.

If United wanted to find actual ticket touting, their analysis should have focused strictly on data linked to logins on the official MUFC Mobile App where ticket access is. That is where ticket touting could matter. Instead, they have cast an overly broad net, likely because app authentication jumps out to a standard mobile browser, making it difficult for their systems to separate standard web portal activity from app usage. I would advise United to focus their efforts in this area; this is likely to be an area of ‘suspicious activity’ which they claim to have on many accounts.

Crucially, there is absolutely nothing in the official Season Ticket T&Cs that prohibits you from sharing your online login details with someone you trust. Unless the club can definitively prove that a third party logged into your account, downloaded your digital ticket, and used it to enter the stadium and not you, they have incredibly weak grounds. This should be robustly challenged.

Furthermore, the Manchester United website is notorious for technical glitches. The Ticket Office itself has routinely advised fans to use manual workarounds, including logging into each other's accounts, to bypass issues that the SeatGeek platform simply wasn't built to handle. You can even manage a friend's account over the phone if permission is granted. Fans are stepping in to help each other because the club lacks the necessary staff to provide real-time support. It is entirely unfair to weaponise these practical workarounds against loyal supporters. I’m not even going to get started on the Queue-it software, which can block you on anything from first access to the site, to multiple refreshes for away tickets.

If you've received one of these review emails, my first advice is not to respond immediately. I know there are ongoing discussions with the club about their recent demands, and the situation could look very different by the end of the week – although it may not.

So, don't rush into anything. Instead, use the time to think about how you want to structure your individual response to best protect your rights. If I hear of any updates, I will, of course, post on the back of that.

What you should start to think about is the following, to be prepared:

- The Multi-Account Access: Explain that you act as the administrator for a genuine, non-commercial match-going group to coordinate away applications and renewals so you can travel together. Explicitly state that this is done manually with permission, and you have never logged in to download, use, or resell another person's match ticket.

- Third-Party Data Protection: The club will ask why you accessed a specific number of accounts. Do not volunteer a list of your friends' names or membership numbers. Under UK GDPR, you must protect their third-party data. Simply explain why you do it collectively.

- Devices and Locations: Keep your device list broad (e.g., personal phone, work phone, laptop). For locations, keep it standard (e.g., residential home, workplace network). Do not provide specific addresses. Crucially, the club's data analysis likely fails to account for how modern UK internet works. For example, Sky Broadband utilises MAP-T technology, meaning up to 16 separate households can share the exact same external IP address at the same time. A single IP flag could incorrectly link completely unrelated households; however, Device IDs would be different, and I have no idea what thresholds United has applied in what seems to be a poor analysis of the data.

- The Photo ID Demand: The club claims they will delete your ID after verification, but sending unencrypted scans of a passport or driving license via standard email is highly insecure in transit. Refusing to email the ID and demanding a secure upload method is a logical use of GDPR principles. If they insist on identity verification, they must provide a secure, encrypted upload function directly to the MUFC servers. Let’s also remember they used ID verification on us last summer, so why not now? I’ll tell you why: down to cost.

I know United read my posts, so I suggest they read the following statement:

“Sending unencrypted passport or driving license scans via standard email is explicitly advised against by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) due to interception and storage risks. Under ICO guidance on Article 32 of the UK GDPR, organisations should provide secure, encrypted upload channels for sensitive identity verification."
(Link: https://t.co/C8MNh2Ut41)“

- Hold Them to Account: Throughout this review, ensure the club strictly adheres to the contractually promised 14-day turnaround timelines for both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the appeals process.

If they uphold your restriction without providing specific evidence, you should immediately file a Subject Access Request (SAR) to force them to hand over your full system logs. See my post here: https://t.co/KhLav1ihBC

If you wish to start to look at a response, below is an email template you can use to frame your formal email reply to [email protected]. Please note that this is just a template, and you should ensure it is updated and adjusted to suit your specific individual circumstances and group setup before sending.

Email Response Template

Dear Appeals Team,
Re: Ticketing Account Review – Membership Number: [Your Number]

I am writing in response to your email regarding the review of my ticketing account activity between March 1 and July 12. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify my account activity, which is entirely legitimate, manual, and non-commercial.

Explanation of Multi-Account Access:
I act as the administrative lead for an established group of match-going friends and family members. Because we travel to fixtures together, I log in to their profiles solely to coordinate linked away match applications and to assist with season ticket renewals. This is done entirely manually with their explicit permission for administrative ease and to navigate known website limitations. I do not access these accounts to download, transfer, or use digital match tickets, nor do I engage in ticket resale or automated bot activity. This should be clear in your telemetry data.

Device and Location Confirmation:
Devices regularly used: [e.g., My personal mobile phone, work tablet, and personal laptop].

Locations:
My account is primarily accessed from my residential home network, and occasionally from my place of work during standard application windows.

Account Management Explanation:
As stated above, my account is managed manually by myself, or by a trusted coordinator within my match-going group whom I have authorised to submit joint applications on my behalf. When submitting group applications, we log in sequentially to our group's profiles to ensure our applications are linked for travel logistics.

Identity Verification:
While I am fully willing to verify my identity, sending raw, unencrypted scans of official government identification via standard email is highly insecure and creates an unnecessary data protection risk in transit. Please provide a secure, encrypted upload mechanism directly to the Manchester United servers so I can safely submit this data.

Given that this activity represents standard, manual group coordination by a loyal supporter, I look forward to your swift confirmation that my account is in full order.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Membership/Season Ticket Number]
[Your Phone Number]

[Liam @liambentley777]

@TicketmasterCS Hello, can someone assist me with a query regarding Kevin Bridges tickets on the 27th of August in Manchester please?

[Steve @CansAndBansV12]

The next United fans forum should focus solely on the mistreatment of our ST holders and the bans that have been dished out this week. Nothing else should be on the agenda - straight into this topic and find out why they fucking hate us and are keen to ban people for nowt

[Barney @Red News @barneyrednews]

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[When Football Was Better @FootballInT80s]

Where were you on 26/05/1999?

If you’re a Manchester United fan, that day will be etched in your memory forever.

Their first UEFA Champions League Final for 31 years appeared to be heading for heartbreak.

Trailing 1-0 to German giants Bayern Munich going into injury time, it seemed that Alex Ferguson’s men had nothing left….

Clive Tyldesley, sounding magnificent on comms, takes the story up.

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[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

New Reform councillors off to a great start by refusing to vote on anything because they haven't a clue what anything means, how anything works or what the fuck they are doing. Vote Reform, get lazy, incompetent, ignorant morons.

[Aadam @AadamHaladh]

“The city is yours, you can’t fill your training ground, are you f*****g sure?” from the away end.

[TRA - The Red Army (MUFC) @TraMufc]

@BBCMOTD Imagine, could have been in front of a 50-60,000 crowd with 10K away fans (or more) with a little foresite & empathy. Whoever was responsible for this decision has denied the players & the young fans in Manchester an incredible opportunity.🗑️

[BN @BanditNanna]

City should play the Palace game at the academy stadium and the Youth Cup final at the Etihad. Two sold out stadiums. Sorted it for you.

[Simon Stone @sistoney67]

Statement from MUST and fan reps on @ManUtd Fans Forum re Youth Cup final venue. Call decision 'a disgrace'. "The news that the FA Youth Cup Final, a great fixture which has heralded so many superstars of the future, is to be played in a stadium of just 6,000 people is a disgrace. Last time United were in the final we had 67,000 fans in Old Trafford so allowing this massive game to be played in front of such a paltry few fans is letting down supporters and denying these young footballers the biggest night of their careers so far. The FA needs to step in and ensure the game can be played at either the Etihad or Old Trafford. Time to put fans first for once."

[Barney @Red News @barneyrednews]

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[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

The fact that United offered to host the FA Youth Cup Final at Old Trafford and City said no, says it all.

[Barney @Red News @barneyrednews]

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