Liverpool fans react furiously as club prepares to charge £77 for tickets

Owners Fenway Sports Group are accused of ignorning supporters after revealing overhaul of ticket pricing and structure

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Liverpool supporters have reacted angrily to the club’s new ticket-price structure after it was announced some seats in the new Main Stand will cost £77 next season.

In a review of the club’s ticketing structure and pricing, Liverpool plan to make around 2,500 seats available to youngsters for each Premier League game, some costing as little as £9 as the club seek to increase accessibility.

In addition, 50 tickets per match will be distributed free of charge via a Young Fan Initiative scheme. Liverpool state 64 per cent of season-ticket prices will either decrease or remain the same.

But those reductions come as the price of other seats increases, with the most expensive general admission ticket to be £77, causing anger among fans.

The new measures follow a 13-month consultation with the Ticket Working Group, part of the official Liverpool Supporters Committee. They handed the club an eight-point plan, six of which the club feel they addressed.

The club would not agree to charge £30 a ticket across 70 per cent of the stadium, and they would not end the categorisation of Premier League games, where ticket prices vary greatly.

A statement from the Liverpool Supporters Committee read: “The outcome is extremely disappointing and a missed opportunity for LFC to lead in a fairer approach to ticket prices.

“After months of time and effort, meetings and debate of ideas and plans to lower supporters’ costs, the owners have chosen to increase prices for many. In the context of the huge income rises the club will receive next year, to up their revenue from fans through season and match-day tickets is both unnecessary and morally unjustifiable.”

Anger has been directed squarely at Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, with supports believing the huge new television deal about to benefit Premier League clubs presented the perfect chance take the financial burden off supporters.

Jay McKenna, a spokesman for fans group Spirit of Shankly, told the Liverpool Echo: “Our frustration is with the owners. We have met with a lot of Liverpool-based staff and they have been open, honest and engaged. Yet we submitted proposals to the owners and asked to meet them and didn’t even get a reply. The decision-making came from Boston no doubt – the final say was with the owners.

Ian Ayre, the club’s chief executive, defended the increase. He said: “We always carefully consider ticket pricing to ensure the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the Club while listening to the views of our match-going fans to understand the priorities around accessibility and affordability.

“The feedback has been clear that having more local and young people at Anfield is a priority and we are delighted to be launching these new ticketing initiatives.”