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A leading charity has warned Manchester United fans who have posed as disabled supporters to get into away matches that their scam has ‘damaging consequences’.
Mail Sport reported on Tuesday that United had received ‘multiple’ allegations, including of non-disabled fans turning up in a wheelchair to matches using tickets allocated to disabled supporters.
The revelations have sparked outrage among fans and forced United to take action to avoid a repeat in future.
Following talks with the Manchester United Disabled Supporters Association, every disabled fan with a wheelchair ticket for away games will now have to show ID to collect, while those who unlawfully pass on their tickets have been warned they could face sanctions – including lengthy bans – for touting.
And disability charity Scope have hit out at the United fans involved for ‘abusing the system’.
Man United fans have been posing as disabled fans to gain access to away games (United supporters at Anfield earlier this season pictured)
‘There are a limited number of accessible tickets available to disabled football fans so it’s disheartening to hear about this situation,’ Scope spokesperson Alison Kerry told Mail Sport.
‘We’d urge anyone abusing the system to think about the damaging consequences of their actions.
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‘There are already a multitude of barriers faced by disabled football fans from inaccessible stadiums and issues with public transport to negative attitudes from other fans.
‘Disabled football fans should always have equal access to support their team.’
Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK, added: ‘Non-disabled people abusing support and services designed for disabled people is always disappointing, whether it is people wrongly using disabled people’s parking bays or football fans.
‘We cannot be surprised that a situation like this arises, when rhetoric from the government and its media outriders demonises disabled people and the support we need at every turn.
‘However, we mustn’t let these abuses lead to more complex processes, as this would make it harder for genuine Disabled fans to get the access we need. We hope that the club works with its disabled fans, to ensure we are all welcome and treated equally.’
Liverpool’s Disabled Supporter Association also weighed into the row. ‘We fully support the stance @ManUtd, and our friends @MudsaO are taking in support of their disabled supporters. This is truly shocking! Enough is enough,’ they wrote on X.
United have also vowed to step up their checks on the ground outside away stadiums to identify disabled fans giving their seat to a non-disabled supporter. Fans are told to return their ticket for away games if they are unable to attend so they can be resold.
Chas Banks, secretary of the MUDSA, slammed the ‘scumbags’ who had been caught using disabled tickets to access away games and said some of these fans had been spotted in a wheelchair area one week, before jumping out of their seats when United score a goal the next.
‘I have seen with my own eyes evidence of these scumbags doing this, and I have the photos,’ Banks told a recent meeting of the Fans Forum.
‘To the extent of them twice having been seen watching the match whilst sitting in a wheelchair on the wheelchair platform, and then the next game being seen standing in the able-bodied section bouncing up and down when United score a goal.
‘I dearly hope that the anyone who gets caught at it receives the harshest possible sanction.
‘This is not a victimless crime, and I find it very sad that some of the people who are losing out to these horrible selfish fans really are the least deserving of being robbed of their chance to get a ticket that they are entitled to. Because I promise you, for many of them, time is not on their side.’
Source link : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13370853/amp/Man-United-fans-posing-disabled-supporters-matches-slammed-charity.html
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Publish date : 2024-05-01 07:00:00
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