By the time Erling Haaland tucked in the winner for Manchester City on the hour at Old Trafford, the loudest message of the day had already been made outside the ground. Supporters gathered at the Bishop Blaize pub before kick-off to protest against their own club, hours before a Manchester derby their side would end up losing 1-0.

The trigger was a mass sanction from the club itself. Manchester United banned 685 season-ticket accounts after an investigation into ticket touting, with a further 464 supporters sanctioned or issued final warnings. The club said the bans were reserved for cases of “significant misuse of the ticketing system for financial gain”, including what it called “the operation of organised ticketing networks”.

Banner over the tunnel

The Red Army supporters’ group cancelled the traditional pre-match flag display, instead hanging a single banner above the players’ tunnel with the message: “THE WAY YOU TREAT US IS A DISGRACE”.

The group described the banner as “an honest, heartfelt cry for recognition from the maligned, vilified, and misrepresented beating heart of our football club”.

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Fan group The 1958 organised the pre-match gathering at the Bishop Blaize. The Manchester United Supporters Trust attacked the process itself, accusing the club of “treating suspicious digital behaviour as proof of touting, imposing severe sanctions without sufficiently compelling evidence”.

The numbers behind the ban

The scale of the crackdown is what has drawn most of the anger. United began with 1,617 accounts flagged for what it called “unusual” ticketing activity. Of those, 499 bans were upheld on appeal, 73 were banned without appealing and 113 season tickets were cancelled after no response. A further 226 supporters were given final warnings and 238 saw their sanctions reduced to restrictions on ticket forwarding or away-match applications; 468 cases were cleared.

Critics have said the club’s warning letters were too aggressive and left long-standing supporters fearing for seats they had held for years.

City win with ten men

The result on the pitch did nothing to soften the mood. Manchester City won the derby 1-0 despite playing more than an hour a man down after Phil Foden was sent off in the 23rd minute for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes. Haaland scored on the hour and Manchester United, under head coach Michael Carrick, never found an equaliser.

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The club has said released season tickets will be offered to supporters on the waiting list, with refunds issued to the banned account holders.

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