Aston Villa have been accused of being “out of touch” and ignoring a request from their fan advisory board to cap Champions League ticket prices on the club’s return to Europe’s elite. Most supporters are faced with paying between £70 and £97 per home game when the competition returns this month, casting a cloud over their meetings with Bayern Munich, Bologna, Juventus and Celtic at Villa Park.
The fan advisory board had asked that prices for European ties be capped at Villa’s category A Premier League rates. But that did not materialise in Wednesday’s announcement and Villa face charges of exploiting supporters who have not seen their side compete at the highest level since the 1982-83 season, when they were knocked out of the European Cup quarter-finals by Juventus.
The Aston Villa supporters’ trust said in a statement: “As part of the fans’ advisory board, the AVST met with the club towards the end of last season to discuss season ticket prices including the Champions League if we were to qualify, and made clear pricing should be no higher than that of a Category A game if we did.
“For the club to announce Champions League ticket prices well above this season’s Category A is extremely disappointing, especially given the recent matchday experience with delays of over 30 minutes getting into the ground, issues with access to seating and toilet facilities.” The latter part refers to problems at Villa’s first Premier League home game of the season against Arsenal on 24 August.
For a small minority of supporters the hike will be minimal: the highest ticket price for a Premier League game at Villa Park is £92 and its equivalent in the Champions League will rise to £97. But a £55 ticket in the cheapest price bracket will become £85 for a non-season-ticket-holding adult ineligible for a concession who wants to watch Bayern Munich, who Villa beat in the 1982 final, walk out for what will be an emotional night on 2 October. That is a 55% increase. The lower £70 price applies only to existing season ticket holders, whose top rate will be £82.
“When compared to other English clubs in the Champions League this year and indeed Uefa’s own away ticket price cap, today’s announcement is out of touch,” the supporters’ trust said. “Loyal Villa fans who’ve waited as long as 40 years to celebrate this momentous season are being punished and exploited at the expense of the club’s compliance to PSR [the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules] … and publicly known revenue generation targets.”
At last season’s Champions League final, supporters buying tickets from their clubs for the Wembley showpiece paid £60 due to a cap imposed by Uefa. This week the governing body announced that tickets for away fans at Champions League games cannot exceed €60, a figure that will be reduced to €50 next season.
The disappointment around Villa’s decision comes during a week when the La Liga club Valencia confirmed they would adopt the highly controversial “dynamic pricing” model for home games. The system, which hit the headlines during the recent scramble for tickets to the Oasis reunion tour, sees prices potentially increase drastically as an event gets closer, depending on demand and the distribution of existing sales.
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Villa are understood to feel that fulfilling PSR obligations gave them little choice but to set prices at these levels. They are likely to review the situation before any future European campaign.