Manchester City plot crackdown on re-sale of Etihad Stadium tickets amid £4,000+ prices for Arsenal showdown

Premier League champions Manchester City are reportedly plotting a crackdown on ticket touts around their Etihad Stadium home matches.

It comes at a time when Manchester City are entertaining an all-time high level of demand for match tickets for home matches, off the back of Pep Guardiola and his players’ historic success last season.

City claimed a trio of trophies at the end of the 2022/23 season, following up a Premier League title success over Arsenal with an FA Cup final win against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium and a UEFA Champions League triumph in Istanbul, Turkey against Inter.

As such, supporters of Manchester City and football fans from all over the world are willing to pay a significant sum of money this time around to catch a glimpse of Pep Guardiola’s star-studded squad including Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne.

However, the problem of inflated ticket prices at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium in particular has been addressed by the club themselves as they look to get ahold of the issue through a new staff hiring.

That is according to the information of Jack Gaughan, writing in his latest MailSport Man City Notebook, who reports that City have moved to ‘clamp down on’ the issue of ticket touts by recruiting a ‘ticket compliance manager’, who will investigate ‘ticket re-sale misuse’.

One ‘common problem’ ongoing at the Etihad Stadium revealed by MailSport is touts purchasing ‘junior tickets’ and selling them on as adult seats, forcing stewards into refusing entry amid ‘more stringent checks’ at turnstiles in recent weeks.

Gaughan’s report looks into the upcoming Premier League showdown with Arsenal at the end of this month, with tickets for the clash already listed at ‘thousands of pounds’. Highlighting one unnamed site, MailSport reveal that there are three on offer next to the away bench and priced at £4,050, without any VIP treatment.

Manchester City take on Arsenal on the final day of March, with the winner of the contest knowing that they could move into the leading position in the Premier League table heading into a vital April fixture list.

Alongside Manchester City’s top-flight clashes against the likes of Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, Guardiola and his players also face a UEFA Champions League quarter-final double-header against Real Madrid, and an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

City do currently have two matches postponed and due for rescheduling, as progression in cup competitions forced Premier League away trips against Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur to be moved and placed on hold.