Newcastle United have cancelled 45 tickets given to school children from Dundee to attend their blockbuster Champions League fixture against Barcelona following backlash from regular match-going fans.
The school group from the High School of Dundee, nearly 200 miles from St James’ Park had purchased the tickets, in ‘good faith’ after being approached to buy the tickets.
The trip for the fixture on the 18th of September was advertised for parents to cost £295 which included the ticket, travel and overnight accommodation.
A spokesman for the school said: ‘The High School of Dundee was approached by an approved provider and the tickets were bought as part of a group package.’
The cancellation comes after pressure from the chair of the Newcastle Fan Supporters Group, Lisa Mole saying it ‘stung’ that the group had received the tickets.
Mole also went on to say that ‘members were fighting every week to get a ticket’, with over 110,000 online users in queues online for a ticket.
Newcastle United have cancelled 45 tickets given to school children from Dundee to attend their blockbuster Champions League fixture against Barcelona
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The decision to cancel the tickets comes after the club received backlash from match-going fans
‘It’s a ballot – people are not guaranteed a ticket – but it does sting when they see people who are not necessarily Newcastle supporters being given an opportunity to go to such a high-profile game.’
When asked about what will happen to the cancelled tickets a Newcastle United spokesman said: ‘These tickets will be made available to Newcastle United supporters through the club’s existing ticket sale process.’
The tickets had not been bought directly from the Magpies website but through ‘an approved seller’.
This is not a new issue at St James Park with the club cancelling 78 season tickets and memberships for unauthorised selling this season.
While a further 4,500 are on a watchlist for suspicious activity and over 700 fans are being looked at for touting.
It’s not the first time a group from the fee-paying school had attended a Champions League game with a similar sized group going to the group game against AC Milan back in 2023.
