In total 7% of United’s 46,800 season ticket holders live outside the UK
Manchester United’s reach as a global football club has been revealed – with season ticket holders in 42 different countries.
In total 7% of United’s 46,800 season ticket holders live outside the UK – from as far afield as Bahrain and Bermuda, New Delhi and New York Outside of the UK the largest number of season ticket holders headng to Old Trafford are in the Republic of Ireland, with 1,616, or 3.5% of the total. Next on the list is Norway, with 837 fans holding tickets.
Third on the list is the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta – which has a population of just 570,000, around 60,000 fewer than the area covered by Manchester council – with 185 season ticket holders.
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The figures, uncovered by Mancunian Matters, also show Denmark has 95, Switzerland 73, Sweden 62, Iceland, 23, the Netherlands 22, Belgium 20 and Poland (eight).
There are seven season ticket holders living on the other side of the world in Australia while there are 13 in Thailand. Across the Atlantic there are 66 in the USA and 10 in Canada. Countries with a single season ticket holder include Italy, Croatia, India and even Russia.
Joe Tedesco, President of Manchester United Supporters’ Club Malta, the world’s oldest official United supporters’ club, said: “I actually thought Malta would have more than 185 season ticket holders, we used to have around 500. Covid had a big impact; a lot of people gave up their tickets because they couldn’t travel, and afterwards, the prices of the flights to the UK rocketed.”
He told Mancunian Matters: “Now it’s not unusual to have to pay €600 for a return flight. We are also affected a lot by the kick-off time and date changes for TV. This season in particular, we have had a lot of Monday night games. There have been a lot of instances where people have booked flights for the weekend, returning on Monday morning, only to see the game moved to the Monday night.”
There are 209 season tickets, or 0.4%, registered to addresses outside Europe. In the USA the largest number of fans are in New York (12), followed by Illinois (nine), California (seven), Texas (six) and Virginia (six).
It is unlikely that fans from far afield travel to Manchester 19 times each season. All season tickets are digital, and accessed through a phone app. Through this season ticket holders can create “relationships” with official members and forward their ticket on on a game-by-game basis
The club states that all season tickets must be used for 16 out of 19 league games per season.
United has over 330 supporters’ clubs globally, many of which share season tickets between their members depending on who is available to travel.
Thai MUSC is one of the largest Manchester United supporters’ clubs in Asia. Their club chair said: ““Season tickets offer a great seat location and we can easily forward them to whichever of our members can attend the game.
“Myself and our secretary travel to Manchester once or twice a season. Over the past few years it has been harder for our members to travel – each trip costs around £2,000 – and so we have donated the tickets to the Manchester United Foundation when no-one from the club can make the game.”
