 Yes, yes, people, welcome back to another video. I wanted to have a bit of a discussion about some news regarding Manchester City fan affairs that broke this morning and I want you guys to give your thoughts. I want to share in mind, I want to have a good conversation about this because it's not very often we have to criticise our owners, our board, our big head honcho decision makers at Manchester City Football Club, but I think today is the day where we have to call them out and criticise them for doing wrong because I absolutely believe they have done wrong in this situation. Now, you might be saying, Hugh, what have they possibly done wrong? Have they not signed the X player? Have they sold this player? No, this is nothing to do with the on the pitch affairs. This is totally to do with protecting your fans, showing your fans respect and showing general class in the way we operate as a club. So look, I am a season ticket holder at Manchester City Football Club now for many years. I've been a match going fan for the best part of 10 years, but in the last sort of five, six, I've become a really frequent goal, but I've been going for the best part of 10 years. And I've had my season ticket for the majority of that. Now, look, this morning, I got my email from the club regarding my season ticket and regarding renewals. And this is an email that every time I see it hit my inbox, I go, oh, what am I, what am I about to read now? What are what are they about to do with season tickets? And what they do with season tickets every year, as long as I've had one is as follows, they continue to raise the prices. They continue to raise the prices of season tickets at Manchester City. And it's just becoming a bit of a joke. I mean, in the last two seasons alone, and my season ticket price has gone up 100 pounds or in around 100 pounds collectively. And now look, it may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things. But in my opinion, it's not something we need to do. It's not something that I believe is fair. Given the success of the club recently, and the good feel factor around the club, I felt this was a fantastic opportunity to freeze the season ticket prices and show class and make a statement to the rest of the Premier League who are we seem to be following in their path. It seems to be some of the explanation as to why we are continuing to raise the prices is to follow in suit of what other Premier League clubs are doing. And also to combat inflation. So we're talking about inflation in general price and everything cost of living, you know, food, housing, lighting, heat, all the necessities in life. And they're all going up in price. So raising the Manchester City season ticket prices apparently is justified by that. And let me tell you about inflation. You're inflating my season ticket prices. But my wages aren't inflating. My wages aren't inflating. The person who sees beside me's wages aren't inflating, or at least I don't think they are. So I find it harder and harder every year to click pay on my Manchester City season ticket because I'm finding it harder to afford it. Now that's just me personally. Look, I'm by no means on the bones of my arse. Thankfully, I'm in a fortunate position where I have food all the time. I live in a warm house and you know, I'm blessed in that sense. But there's a lot of people out there and a lot of long term blues Manchester City fans who don't have that luxury and they're struggling. They're struggling to put food on the table. As I already said, the cost of living crisis is going up. And they've got families to feed. They've got people to look after and you know, bigger priorities than football, but they are undoubtedly passionate match going Manchester City fans and have been since way before the success. It's becoming closer and closer all the time to these people simply can't afford to go. These people can't justify every single season adding another 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds on top of their season ticket. That's just for one ticket. What happens if these people have kids, if these people have parents, grandparents that go with them and I have done for generations and deserve the right to continue to go? It's hard for them to justify. It's becoming harder for them to justify spending the money on these season tickets. It's not out of not loving the club. It's simple economics. It's becoming harder for these people to justify parting ways with this amount of money. I mean, I've got the percentages in increases. So the family stands gone up 18%. This is from 2021 to 2024, 2025. So the season coming up. Family stand has gone up 18%. Colin Bell's gone up 16.5%. My stand, the South stand has gone up just over 24%. And the East stand has gone up almost 16%. It's suggesting that the club is going in a certain direction that will disappoint and make a lot of blues feel like them. Because look, as long as I'm going to Manchester City Games, I know I'm from Ireland, I'm from Dublin, but I'm going over a long time and Man City runs in my family and people before me and my family were going to City Games. I've always felt like I was following a club that took pride on its community, that took pride on its working class legacy fans and took pride in the fact that the fans are the ones that made the club. You know, these people that I'm talking about who might be struggling nowadays to afford these types of prices are the type of people that kept the club going at a time where they needed the fans the most. So is this club, is Manchester City Football Club now going in a direction where it's becoming blatantly obvious? Is it more clear than ever that Manchester City Football Club simply don't care about these people? You have to ask yourself this question and the answer year on year is becoming more and more apparent that maybe they don't, maybe they don't, they simply just don't care. I mean, I spoke about how I'm going for the best part of 10 years now and I was very fortunate that when I first started going I got to know people, I got involved in the community, I got, you know, I made great friends of all ages and some of you, I still know very well to this day and I still go to games with but there's plenty from back then that they'll say to me, I just can't justify paying my season ticket, I'll try and get the odd ticket here and there or I'll look for spares and that but outright paying five, six, seven, eight hundred pounds for a season ticket increasing year on year is just not something I can justify and I can't blame them. Do you know what I mean? How can you blame them? City, if you think, look, I'm seeing a lot of arguments online saying, oh, well, this is a price of success and if you want to sign your Erling Hallans and your Kevin De Bruyne's of this world, you know, the club needs to generate money. If you think for a second, city squeezing another 50 pounds out of me and the rest of the season ticket holders in the stadium is going to have any major impact on the club's finances, you're totally, totally wrong. We're talking about a multi billion pound organization who are literally just squeezing us to the bones of our arse for as much as they possibly can with little to no care. For me, look, I want you guys to get involved in this discussion. For me, it's going down a direction whereby they actually probably don't want people like me there. They probably don't want people like you there. If you're a local fan or a season ticket holder, they would much rather the tourists fly in and this isn't I'm not talking about foreign fans, fans live overseas. I'm talking about people who actually don't really care about Manchester City that just go into the Eddie had for an event. They're going to buy their hot dogs, their phone fingers, they'll spend 150 pounds, 200 pounds, the club shops that spend 300 pounds on a ticket. And the club have made absolute dough. It's about maximizing the punter they get into the stadium. That's literally the way it's going for me right now that they actually don't. They don't really want us there. How many of you if you're season ticket holders are regularly getting text messages and emails from the club about listing your season ticket up on the exchange. They want your season ticket back off you for games so that they can sell it on for more. And the guy who sits next to me in the south stand, never forget it one day. And he said to me, I'm not going to make the game next week, whatever game it was, it was this season, I'm not going to make the game next week. So I'm going to listen up on the exchange. And he listed up in the exchange, he got whatever the face value was 37 pounds 50 something like that. I think it was for the side stand. I'm at the next game. The person who ended up buying the ticket off the exchange. I said, how much you buy the ticket for? He said something like 65 pounds, 60 65 pounds. So the club made a profit on the man, I won't name him who sits next to me in the stadium of his season ticket. It's worrying. It's very, very worrying. And this is the first season where I'm kind of, I'm kind of saying to myself, can I justify? I mean, my season ticket is now 750 pounds sterling. My first ever season ticket, I think was 300 pounds 350 pounds in or around there. But I was 1821 or whatever. No, I was our class as a child at the point, I think. So now I'm kind of going, I don't know, can I justify 750 pounds for my season ticket? And I'm kind of upset at the club for putting me in this position, because it's not something they need to do. It would have been such a classy thing to do to say we are Manchester City, we are not going to go down the direction of other Premier League clubs. And we're going to show respect to our loyal fans at a time of success and free season ticket prices. Now, I know plenty of rivals and dickhead pundits on radio stations. And that will say, Oh, well, it's sports washing. They've got 115 charges that trying to make their, make their reputation look a lot better. And, and, you know, do something that will soften the blow or, or, you know, decriminalize them type thing. But anybody with their head screwed on will know that it would have just been a classy move. It would have been a touch of class and, and paying respect to the loyal fans. There's fans much more loyal than me. And I'm a season ticket holder. And I go a good bit, I go home and away, go a bit, I go to Europe, I go a bit. Well, there's people who go home every single week, rain, hail, snow, sleet, they go away all around England, all around Europe and the Man of the Weather. And they'll spend thousands, every single season. And those thousands are becoming more thousands. Because our club are being greedy. It's greed. It's totally not her greed. Look, I know all of you may not agree with me and you're all going to have your own points of views. And that's totally fine. But I had to get that off my chest. I'd like you guys to leave your thoughts down below in the comments. Leave a like on the video. If you agree, what I'm saying, subscribe if you're new around here. And I don't know. I don't know how we fix this. I don't know. Is there any? There's not even a fan liaison officer who we can go to with our problems, who will then contact the club directly for us. There's no line of communication that seems to be clear to me. Maybe there is, but I'm not aware of it. And as a season ticket holder, you think I'd be aware of it. So I don't know. But I was very disappointed when I got that email this morning. And I know a number of other friends of mine who are season ticket holders were disappointed too. So share the video around to other season ticket holders. I'd love to get their points of view and what they think. And yeah, see you soon.