By Martin Graham
Newcastle United has revoked more than 100 season tickets and issued an apology to fans after uncovering an old arrangement that had allowed tour organizers to access seats at St. James’ Park.
The club said this followed a deeper review into the unapproved reselling of match tickets. The issue came to light after a school almost 200 miles away managed to obtain seats for Thursday’s Champions League tie against Barcelona – a match that drew an online queue of around 110,000 supporters for the remaining allocation.
Officials explained that when the current ownership arrived four years ago, they cancelled agreements that had previously enabled third-party companies to distribute tickets. One of those agreements had been made about ten years earlier with a handful of tour groups for use by school parties, but it had gone unnoticed as there was no formal contract in place.
The club admitted they failed to detect that those organizers were still distributing season tickets and said they regret the lapse.
School tickets cancelled and seats returned to ballot
Forty-five seats for the Barcelona clash were purchased by the High School of Dundee after the school was contacted by a ticket provider. A spokesperson said the school believed the offer to be legitimate, but the tickets were later cancelled once Newcastle intervened.
The club has now removed 103 season tickets in total for breaking its terms, while clarifying that this particular matter does not involve individual fans reselling their own seats.
The season tickets involved were originally bought by the tour organizers during the 2015–16 season. Newcastle noted that these passes had continued to be used and resold at inflated package prices, and that this remained hidden because no written deal existed with the groups.
A statement from the club confirmed that it had not received any revenue above the original ticket value and that the reclaimed seats have been added back into the official ballot for upcoming home fixtures.
Supporters’ group welcomes action but urges openness
The Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust said it had received numerous messages from angry supporters after discovering that tickets for the Barcelona match had gone to the school in Dundee.
Chair Lisa Mole said the trust was pleased the matter had been raised and addressed but added that it will continue pressing the club for openness and to keep fans as the main priority.
She stated that while it is positive that the club acted and removed the tickets, it is frustrating that such a situation arose in the first place, noting that those 103 seats had been going to people outside of the club’s fanbase every home game.
