Manchester United raises Old Trafford academy match prices as owners defend ticket policy
Under-21s fixture adult tickets set at £10, child £5 — a marked increase from prior academy prices amid broader pricing changes and supporter criticism
Manchester United has increased ticket prices for an upcoming Under-21s match at Old Trafford, charging £10 for adult tickets and £5 for children for the club’s Premier League International Cup fixture against Athletic Bilbao next week.
The adult price represents a 233 percent rise on comparable academy fixtures held at Old Trafford last year, when a reported November match between the Under-19s and AZ Alkmaar carried adult tickets priced at £3 and child tickets at £1.50. Matches staged at the Under-21s’ regular home, Leigh Sports Village, have remained free this season.
The move comes after a series of ticketing and pricing changes introduced by the club’s ownership and management over the past year, which have prompted vocal criticism from sections of the supporter base. Last season, Manchester United announced increases in first-team ticket prices and introduced a match categorisation model that raised prices for some matches, drawing protests outside Old Trafford.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s co-owner, defended earlier decisions by saying it "doesn't make sense" for Manchester United tickets to be cheaper than those at other clubs, citing Fulham as a comparison. In an interview with the club's United We Stand magazine, Ratcliffe said he understood supporters' anger and that he wanted to "optimise the ticketing" while trying not to price out local fans.
Club chief executive Omar Berrada said the club had sought to balance supporters' concerns with rising operating costs. Berrada noted that after 11 consecutive years of price freezes, the club increased prices by five percent for the past two seasons and intended to do the same for the coming season to "offset continued rises in operating costs." He said the club recognised the unpopularity of any price rise, particularly during a period of underperformance on the pitch, and that the board had considered arguments put forward by the fans' advisory board.
Supporter organisations have been critical of a range of recent changes. The Manchester United Supporters' Trust expressed disappointment that the club did not freeze prices in the face of calls to do so. The Manchester United Supporters' Trust and the Manchester United Supporters' Trust-aligned group MUST have raised concerns about proposals to relocate fans seated behind the dugouts to create a new premium area and about greater charges for non-season-ticket holders at higher-category matches. Other measures criticised by supporters include a rise in the season ticket minimum usage requirement to 16 of 19 Premier League games, a £10 charge for fans selling tickets back to the club fewer than two weeks before a game, and a reported 15 percent increase in car-parking charges.
The latest pricing decision for an academy fixture arrives as the first team has struggled in the early Premier League schedule under manager Ruben Amorim. United were knocked out by lower-league Grimsby Town in the second round of the Carabao Cup and sat 14th in the Premier League after four matches, including a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium over the weekend.
Club executives and owners have defended pricing changes as necessary to address rising costs and broader financial pressures, while supporters’ groups maintain that increases reduce accessibility for local and long-standing fans. The Athletic Bilbao under-21 fixture at Old Trafford will provide a near-term test of how supporters respond to the revised academy pricing when it takes place next week.