I will take you at your word on it mate as im only guessing.
What is behind this from the club i will never know?
Try to prove that our normal "fans" can't be trusted so they can carve off more of the intake to corporate, and gain evidence that they need you to pick up your ticket and be vetted before you go in the ground, just suits their agenda.
The BBC's Simon Stone says 6k short.The Daily Mail have done their own remaining tickets seat planner screen grab.
Daily Mail stating 3500 tickets left. Probably made that figure up.
Wonder where they got that idea from? ;-)
The comments section is hilarious.
Full of United fans making up any excuse they can think of about the empty seats.
1 example.
King2 from Copenhagen.
The so called hordes of empty seats on show at Old Trafford represents approximately 4% of the capacity. Looks like the reporter wanted to make a big story of a minor issue. Poor DM journalism.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...sell-Old-Trafford-Carabao-Cup-semi-final.html
The BBC are reporting that Man Utd are concerned that there could be City fans in the home ends and they will be ejected.
Sounds like a bit of hot air, however this could be a big issue for the return leg if Utd get a good result. At the Maine Road derbies there would always be a lot of United in the City end.
I don't suppose the ever thorough investigative BBC bothered to ask why so few tickets were made available to City fans ?
Corporate first dibs and packages sold by the club to tourists are killing away game allocation, especially for the big games.
You see the camera pan the crowd sometimes and it's half and half scarves, cameras out, shopping bags in the other hand, kids everywhere who haven't got a single point, never mind 24,000.
Clubs don't care. TV money is king followed by corporate. £30 from Joe Bloggs is neither here nor there
The piece ends with this (obviously the last couple of lines are more in relation to the ejection warning that's the focus of the overall piece):
"Instead of the 10% allocation as stipulated in Football League regulations, City received 3,000 tickets for the game, with United getting around 2,800 for the return leg at Etihad Stadium on 29 January.
The clubs took the decision following a number of incidents that took place when the sides met last month, when United midfielder Fred appeared to be racially abused by a City supporter.
It is also understood at the previous semi-final, there were flashpoints that made the clubs wary of the consequences of a repeat.
United say increased police, stewarding and crowd surveillance will be in operation 'both inside and outside the ground'."
The BBC's Simon Stone says 6k short.
Fake newsThe piece ends with this (obviously the last couple of lines are more in relation to the ejection warning that's the focus of the overall piece):
"Instead of the 10% allocation as stipulated in Football League regulations, City received 3,000 tickets for the game, with United getting around 2,800 for the return leg at Etihad Stadium on 29 January.
The clubs took the decision following a number of incidents that took place when the sides met last month, when United midfielder Fred appeared to be racially abused by a City supporter.
It is also understood at the previous semi-final, there were flashpoints that made the clubs wary of the consequences of a repeat.
United say increased police, stewarding and crowd surveillance will be in operation 'both inside and outside the ground'."