It’s hard not to see this for what it really is, an attack on the very fabric of our support.
For years, fans on this forum and elsewhere have done what the club claims it wants - kept the ground full, week in, week out. On cold Wednesday nights against Southampton, Burnley, or anyone else, it’s been supporters helping supporters that’s made sure the Etihad hasn’t had empty patches. People pass tickets on at face value or less, not for profit, but to keep a Blue in the seat. That’s loyalty, not exploitation. That’s culture, not commerce.
Now the club wants to threaten and dismantle that? To hand ticketing over to nine faceless “reseller partners” with no guarantee those seats end up with actual City fans? To risk away supporters in home ends? To strip away the generational bonds that make following this club more than just a transaction?
It’s not just about tickets. It’s about trust. About the club choosing to believe in its own supporters, rather than treating us as problems to be managed or revenue streams to be maximised. The irony is glaring it really is. Fans that go out of their way to help fellow Blues being punished, but corporate reselling at inflated prices is legitimised. Absolutely laughable.
The danger here is more than empty rhetoric. If you hollow out the core, if you alienate season ticket holders and silence the natural, organic ways fans have kept this community alive, then the Etihad will lose its heart. Without the voices, the noise, the generational continuity, what are we left with? A stadium that looks full but feels soulless, like it already is today. We had more noise at Boundary Park for the under 21's than we did at the Etihad for Spurs on Saturday.
And for what? So some executive can polish their CV, tick a KPI, and tell Khaldoon they’ve “optimised ticketing strategy”? That kind of short term box ticking exercise is the enemy of long term identity.
City’s rise to the top of world football has always been rooted in something deeper than money: it’s been built on a loyal, passionate base that never walked away, even in the darkest years. We are the people who stood by the club when we were tumbling down the leagues, who lived through York away and still came back in our tens of thousands.
That loyalty is what made the great moments mean what they did. The Aguero goal against QPR wasn’t just a title winning strike - it was a release of decades of pain, belief, and endurance by supporters who had never stopped caring, who never stopped loving the Club. The same with Dickov’s goal at Wembley, that eruption of noise came not from tourists or day trippers, but from generations of Blues who carried the club through the darkest times. Those moments mattered because of us.
If the club now forgets that, or worse, deliberately undermines it, then it risks hollowing out the very soul that makes Manchester City what it is today. Without the continuation of that core support, without those bonds passed down through families and communities, the Etihad becomes just another stadium and City just another corporate “brand.”
City was built on loyalty, not on resale partners and CV padding executives. Lose sight of that, and we lose what makes us different.
We shouldn’t stay silent. We shouldn’t let them rewrite what it means to be a Blue. This isn’t just about tickets, it’s about identity, continuity, and the kind of club we want to hand down to the next generation of supporters.
We cannot, and must not, let those above us take our club away from us. Decisions made in boardrooms might be dressed up as “progress” or “modernisation,” but we know what they really risk. It risks the slow erosion of what Manchester City truly is. A football club is nothing without its supporters, and if those people are sidelined, silenced, or priced out, then all you’re left with is an empty shell wearing the badge and supporters in City shirts filming a Spurs player scoring goals against your beloved team.
That’s why it’s more important than ever that we, as supporters (and continued rallying from the 1894 group - thank you!) continue to show the strength of our identity. Keep turning up at the Under 21s. Keep filling the stands at women’s matches. Keep showing in numbers, and in voice, that Manchester City is more than just its first team on a Saturday afternoon. It’s a community, a family, and a culture that runs deep in this city. Every time we turn out in droves for the academy lads or the women, we remind the club where its roots are and who has carried it from the lowest points to the greatest heights.
It’s us, the loyal, local, generational supporters who gave meaning to Dickov’s goal at Wembley, who gave soul to Aguero’s 93:20, who turned moments of football into legends that will echo forever. Without us, those memories are empty, and with us, they are timeless. That’s why the club cannot afford to ignore us.
The reality is, the Etihad doesn’t come alive because of corporate deals or reseller partners. It comes alive because Blues hand tickets down to their kids, because mates help each other out on forums and Facebook, because we sing for each other as much as for the team. That heartbeat can’t be manufactured, and it certainly can’t be replaced by profit margins. Tickets are sold to the local fan on those groups 45 minutes before kick off so a local supporter who normally cannot get to games can attend those games (if there are train strikes and fans can't get there).
So we keep turning up. We keep reminding them that the soul of this club is not for sale. And we keep fighting to make sure that, no matter what changes come from above, Manchester City remains ours - a club of its people, for its people.
MCFC.
