Manchester City and Arsenal tell fans they have to turn up for more games or face the consequences | OneFootball

Manchester City and Arsenal meet this afternoon.

The two best teams in the country clashing at the Etihad.

This is an ongoing battle, as these last two seasons have seen Manchester City and Arsenal fighting it out as champions and runners-up, the same very much on the card for this 2024/25 campaign.

However, the pair of them share a major problem.

Manchester City and Arsenal struggling to convince their fans to turn up on a regular basis.

Both the Emirates and the Etihad notorious for how many empty seats that are on show at so many matches.

The two clubs taking drastic measures, threatening their season ticket holders that if they don’t turn up for more games, they face the possibility of losing their season tickets.

Manchester City used to require their season ticket holders to turn up to only 10 of the 19 Premier League matches each season, now that has been raised to a minimum of 14.

For Arsenal season ticket holders, this season their four league matches in the Champions League are included in their season ticket, their club has ordered them to use their seat for at least 19 of the 23 Premier League and Champions League (league) matches.

Manchester United season ticket holders are also under orders to turn up more. Previously they had to turn up for at least 14 Premier League matches, now that has been raised to 15 of 19 this season.

It is a disgrace.

Modern football gone mad.

So many fans of these clubs would love to have the chance to go to matches, yet other fans happy to leave their seats unfilled on so many occasions.

I saw this story on the Manchester Evening News (see below) and their report was sparked by so many Manchester City fans failing to turn up for their 4-1 win over Ipswich in August, their club sending them a warning/reminder after not bothering to turn up.

The thing is as well, this was a 3pm on a Saturday non-televised match, not an 8pm on a Monday night Sky Sports game. Obviously, so many Manchester City fans not bothering to turn up because it was ‘only’ Ipswich.

I would hate to see this ever happen at Newcastle United. There will always be occasions where some Newcastle fans end up finding it impossible to get to matches and use their season tickets, for all kinds of reasons. However, when you are talking thousands of fans it clearly isn’t the case at the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

‘Manchester City season ticket holders who missed the Ipswich game swiftly found an email waiting for them from the club.

The message noted that they had not attended Saturday’s match and reminded them that they must use their season card for at least 14 of the 19 Premier League games at the Etihad if they want to keep their ticket for next season. That number has been bumped up from 10 in recent years, meaning fans now must attend more than two-thirds of matches where they used to have to attend just over half.

[Manchester] City are one of a number of Premier League clubs to have introduced minimum quotas for fans to use their season tickets. [Manchester] United moved their threshold up from 14 to 15 this season, while Arsenal require fans to use their ticket for 20 out of 23 matches (including four Champions League games).

Some fans feel that they should be able to attend as many or as few games as possible once they have bought an annual ticket, although the quota is in place to ensure the atmosphere is as good as it can be as often as it can be as well as to stop people using season tickets just so they can ensure a seat for certain matches.