Hull City vice-chairman Ehab Allam: Premier League £30 price cap on away tickets 'not in the interests of football'

Premier League supporters will not pay over £30 for an away ticket for the next three years after scheme was approved

Ehab Allam, vice-chairman of Hull City (Getty)

Hull City vice-chairman Ehab Allam has branded the Premier League’s £30 cap on away ticket prices as “not in the interests of football” after all 20 clubs voted in favour of the scheme this week.

The Tigers are bidding to end their top-flight exile after relegation last season and are currently fourth in the Championship with an £8bn injection of television rights money set to flood through the game’s richest league.

A culmination of years of mass supporter protests and boardroom discussions, the scheme will directly effect the East Yorkshire club if they secure promotion back to the Premier League in the next three years.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Allam said: “I see the price cap as short-sighted, politically-motivated and not in the interests of football.

“Politics, such as when a Government working group recently pushed fan ownership, should not be mixed with football at this level. What will happen next? The black market will flourish. At £30 per ticket, most clubs are going to be over-subscribed when it comes to fans applying for tickets.

“That will lead to an allocation process having to be set up. Or, for some of the big clubs, extended even further. That, in the long run, is likely to see some fans having to pay more than they pay at present under market forces because, after missing out in a ballot or similar, they will look to the black market.

Hull City are chasing promotion back to the Premier League this season (Reuters)

“As a football club, why should we sell a ticket to someone for £30 and they then sell it on for £50 or £60? That can’t be right.

“Just as an example, when we played Liverpool last season we received complaints from Liverpool fans saying they couldn’t buy tickets because their fellow fans had bought tickets – many at concession prices – with the intention of boycotting the game.

“That meant fans who legitimately wanted to watch the game could not do so, despite there being empty seats.”