By Carter Smith
Leicester fans are enraged after Leicester City Football Club announced it will start charging an extra £25 to own a physical season ticket.
The club last month announced an increase in the price of season tickets, including an additional £25 if you want to own a physical card.
Lifelong fan Jack Crick, a 20-year-old psychology student at the University of Leicester, said: “Why should the fans be punished because the club can’t manage their finances properly?
“Especially with all these players being on stupid money.”
Fan groups Union FS, Leicester City Supporters Club and Foxes Trust met with the club on May 1, to discuss the additional price.
In this meeting, the club said it will keep the extra charge, but agreed that instead of going to the club, the money will go to the VS Foundation, which helps local charities and hospitals.
The fan groups’ statement said: “Whilst we recognise the good that the VS Foundation do for our local community, this change does not go far enough.
“Foxes Trust, Leicester City Supporters Club and Union FS remain opposed to the charge.”
Fans of the club showed their displeasure towards this charge in the last game of the season against Blackburn Rovers where large portions of the stadium were heard chanting “£25 you’re having a laugh.”
Fans have also taken to social media to protest at the change in price and show support to the fan groups.
Another Leicester fan, Nathan Clark, 20, who is studying geography at Coventry University, said: “It’s disgraceful, why start with £25 and not something cheaper?
“I’ve been going 10 years, and they haven’t asked for this before so why start now? Some people collect these cards as part of their experience so why take them away?”
Leicester City Supporters Club conducted research on how other Premier League clubs use mobile ticketing and found that Leicester’s new scheme is not in line with the rest of the Premier League.
The club has since made a statement in favour of this change in which it said the decision was made in order to: “Admit supporters more efficiently into the stadiums on matchdays, identify all supporters in the stadium and tackle anti-social behaviour, take further steps towards offsetting our environmental impact.”
