Man Utd mascot, six, hit by club's ticket tout crackdown

What the report says

BBC Sport Football reports that a six-year-old Manchester United supporter, Ruari, has had restrictions placed on his season-ticket account during the club’s wider crackdown on suspected ticket touting. His mother, Katie, 39, from Urmston in Trafford, told the BBC she was unable to apply for an away ticket for him ahead of the Premier League opener against Hull. She said Ruari has held a season ticket since birth and previously served as a match mascot.

According to an email seen by the BBC, Manchester United said repeated access to Ruari’s account, along with an “extremely high” number of other ticketing accounts, suggested centralised control. Katie denies wrongdoing, saying she manages ticket administration for relatives and friends, including a group of 19 who try to sit together at Old Trafford, and that some family members use shared devices or need help with online systems.

Katie’s appeal, reported by the BBC, said no tickets were sold for profit, advertised, passed to unauthorised third parties, or obtained through bots or scripts. The club’s email said official ticket forwarding and applying with other supporters were not treated as wrongdoing on their own, but that the overall pattern of activity had not been adequately explained. Manchester United declined to comment on Ruari’s individual case.

The BBC says Ruari is among “thousands” of fans affected by the anti-touting operation. Manchester United has previously said it believes most flagged accounts were correctly identified, while acknowledging some legitimate supporters may have been caught up in the process. The club also said similar work last season recovered more than 14,000 tickets worth over £1m for resale through official channels.