England’s top flight football clubs have unanimously agreed to cap the price of tickets for away fans at 30 pounds for the next three seasons, the Premier League said on Wednesday.
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Last month the US-based owners of Liverpool scrapped controversial plans to hike Anfield ticket prices after 10,000 fans walked out of the ground in protest during a Premier League match against Sunderland.
“We appreciate how many hurdles away fans face when they travel and this cap is a great way to help them”.
“Every single Premier League club charges more than £30 for category A away games so if you follow one of the teams that falls in to that category you’re guaranteed to save money”, he said.
It also said: “Away fans have additional travel costs and pay individual match prices, as season ticket and other discounts are not available to them and the responsibility for them is shared between clubs and therefore it is right that there is a collective initiative to help them”.
Arsenal – the club with the most expensive season tickets – announced its own two-year price freeze on tickets at the Emirates Stadium along with funding an extra £4 discount for fans travelling to away games, meaning they should never pay more than £26.
Supporters groups have been lobbying for a £20 limit but the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, pushed for £30 as a limit that could gain the support of all its clubs.
“In terms of the financial support for away fans, we have consistently been strongly in favour of doing more to help and were originally in favour of a Premier League proposal around travel initiatives which would have been even more generous to travelling fans than the £30 cap”.
Premier League stadiums have been at least 90 per cent full for each of the last 19 seasons.
It is still a compromise arrangement, with fans groups backing the Twenty’s Plenty campaign to cap prices at £20. Whether this decision means that none of the above will now take place, remains to be seen.
Fans have vented their anger this season at the cost of tickets.
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The £30 away ticket cap will be introduced from next season.
