Source:REUTERS/Scott Heppell
[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, Newcastle United has canceled over 100 season tickets, with the club claiming these tickets had been held by a small number of tour operators for the past decade and apologizing to fans for the oversight. Previously, Newcastle decided to cancel 45 tickets for the highly sought-after Champions League home match against Barcelona this Thursday, which were purchased by a private school in Dundee, Scotland, 190 miles away. Earlier this month, over 110,000 Newcastle fans flooded the online queue system scrambling for the scarce member-sale tickets for the match against Barcelona. Strong backlash ensued when news broke that Dundee High School had obtained a large number of tickets. The Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) stated they had been inundated with messages from angry fans regarding the incident. But now the club says it has canceled 103 season tickets this week for violating terms and conditions. They claim this was not due to individual fans reselling tickets, but rather season tickets that were sold in bulk to a small number of tour operators back in the 2015-16 season for the benefit of school groups. Newcastle insists that all third-party ticketing supplier agreements were terminated soon after the October 2021 takeover was completed and claims there were no formal contracts with the tour groups. Instead, they stated that the tour operators’ practice of continuously reselling the season tickets at higher package prices was only discovered recently, emphasizing that the club took immediate action upon becoming aware of the issue.