Manchester United to increase 'spot-checks' over claims fans are posing as disabled to get away tickets

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Spot-checks are to be stepped up to ensure tickets for disabled Manchester United fans do not end up in the wrong hands, the club says.

The Manchester Evening News reported how the chair of United's Disabled Supporters' Association Chas Banks launched a scathing attack after claims some able-bodied fans have sat in wheelchairs in order to get into matches for which tickets are particularly hard to come by.

At a Fans Forum meeting he said there had been 'widespread misuse' of tickets by a group of disabled fans, which had been passed to non-disabled supporters directly or via a third party in breach of the club's ticket rules. READ MORE: Manchester United players were 'unhappy' with me - now I'm on the brink of proving them wrong READ MORE: I signed for United and wanted to quit after my first training session A recent report in the Daily Mail also claimed some fans were guilty of falsely gaining entry into disabled sections to watch matches, particularly away from home.

The club have now stressed their number one priority for disabled supporters is to ensure only the appropriate people enter designated areas after. “Tickets in wheelchair sections are always in extremely high demand, especially at away matches, and our number one priority is making sure fans who need to be in this section have the opportunity,” said a United spokesperson. “The suspected misuse of these tickets was discussed at our recent fans’ forum and we will be supporting the request of the Manchester United Disabled Supporters’ Association to implement ID ticket collections, as well as more spot-checks, at away fixtures.” At the recent Fans Forum, a United spokesperson said: "We have previously always excluded disabled fans from ticket