There was more bad news in store for Manchester United after the Brighton game as it came to light that some disabled fans were forced to relocate before kick-off due to their usual wheelchair bays being inaccessible.
Many wheelchair bay access routes into the disabled sections of Old Trafford were blocked by temporary seating, remnants from the multiple Womens Euro Championship games held recently.
Many fans took to social media to vent their frustrations and disgust in what must have been a dismal day all round, with one stating. “Joke really is. Even worse than the football today that! Got there and didn’t know what to do. I’ve been told it will be sorted for Liverpool, just hope they keep to their word. Gonna ring up tomorrow.”
Zayden’s season ticket wheelchair bay gone as United have messed up with the redesign of the Stretford End what was disabled bays are now seats all clumped together even tho his season ticket is exactly where it was last season. Fuming isn’t the word pic.twitter.com/1NsBeoBBHQ
— Benjamin Brazil (@bennymufc) August 7, 2022
Another fan explained: “Fuming isn’t the word, What a mess but it was the 45 minutes that we had no idea what was going on. My son got really upset thinking he was going to miss out on the game. Why no one triple checked the work is beyond me.”
Manchester United have since apologised in a statement to the affected fans and offered a full refund.
The spokesperson for United said: “We understand the significant impact this will have had on the matchday experience for those fans. We have since spoken directly with those affected and offered a full refund for the match which will be processed in the coming days.”
“We also explained that this unfortunate error was isolated, and a result of the section being configured differently for the recent Women’s Euros game – the process is now underway to ensure the correct configuration and this will be completed well ahead of the next home match against Liverpool FC.
“The club reiterates its commitments to improving the matchday experience for all supporters and continuing the positive work completed in collaboration with MUSDA to significantly improve the accessible facilities around Old Trafford over recent seasons.”
United and in particular CEO Richard Arnold have been praised in recent years for improvements to the match day experience for disabled fans, with several enhancements happening around the ground in recent years.
All of which makes it even more disappointing that the club did not facilitate the expected checks to make sure all match going fans get the optimum experience.
This would appear to many to be a basic error by the staff and surely should have been picked up during the pre-game checks that take place.
Hopefully this lack of planning is rectified before the Liverpool game and doesn’t repeat itself.
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