How to obtain Manchester Football tickets? - Changed focus to Scotland for 10Sep22

With mention of Tottingham Hotspur wonder if Ossie Ardiles is posting in disguise.

Sad to say I think chance of
aquiring tickets is vanishingly small.
Premier League generally operates at about 95% sell out and the top few clubs are massively oversubscribed.

The 2nd league in the UK, the Championship ,I think is the 4th best attended in Europe and you could be near certain of getting tickets for those games.
On the 23June the Carabao Cup fixtures are announced ,I think there's a chance the Premier League clubs might be playing on the dates you posted,tickets would certainly be gettable for those games.
In the Manchester area Preston and Burnley would be good picks of hugely tradional grounds to attend

Another option could be Sheffield ,not so far away and a lovely journey thru a national park to get here
Sheff Utd play at the oldest established professional ground.
Sheffield Fc recognized by Fifa as the oldest football club are still going strong since 1857 and thier local rivals Hallam play up at Sandygate as they have done since 1860.

Assuming it would similar to Liverpool, if there's an official Supporters Club in your area, join, and see how they disperse their allocated tickets.

Thank you all for replying. I’m a little lost. I don’t understand the “Ossie Ardiles posting” comment, but I’m think you are telling me it was not a real ticket posting. It sounds like seeing a Manchester match is a dream that won’t be realized by a mere mortal traveler such as myself. However, I do appreciate some of the other suggestions. I will look on 23June when the Carabao Cup fixtures are announced and see if anything aligns with our travel schedule. I will also look at Preston and Burnley. And I will try to see if a SheffUtd match is possible to find tickets for. We will be renting a vehicle so driving a bit is reasonable.

Only buy tickets from the club or official resellers.

It's Man City v Spurs on 9 Sept. The date/time will likely change for TV coverage. Confirmation is expected to be 5 July https://www.premierleague.com/news/2647056

Thank you all for replying. I’m a little lost. I don’t understand the “Ossie Ardiles posting” comment, but I’m think you are telling me it was not a real ticket posting.

Don't worry, it's a long story!

It isn't a false ticket posting but the name of the team you were referring to is Tottenham Hotspur. Also be aware that there are two teams from Manchester playing in the Premier League, Manchester United and Manchester City so if you don't have a particular allegiance that opens up your opportunities to see a match however tickets will be incredibly hard to come by.

Of course if it's simply a case of watching a football match then a Championship match (the league below the Premier League) will be easier to get tickets for and with the play and atmosphere no less than those in the league above.

The Ozzie thing is a very " in" joke relating to the Spurs 1981 FA Cup song and Ozzie's Argentinain flavoured way of pronouncing Tottenham.
There's a lot of season tickets at Old Trafford in the hands of touts,believed to be in thousands which the club is trying to reduce so genuine fans on the waiting list of multi tens of thousands could buy them.

Do check the MUFC site about tickets and approved resellers.

Please don't use touts ,plenty if horror stories of people being conned out of all thier money.

https://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/commercial-awareness/news/the-ins-and-the-outs-of-the-ticket-touts

Where are you going to be? I assume Manchester but you say you want to see a PL game, not specifically Manchester (I assume you mean Manchester United?) If you're going to be elsewhere in the country your chances may be better.

On the topic of Man Utd, you've got pretty much no chance of getting four regular tickets together at Man U, especially for a more elevated fixture like against Tottenham. You may be able to get corporate but it'll cost a fortune.

I bought Chelsea tickets this past May through a third-party seller "Viagogo". The process was smooth, but we paid about $300 per ticket. Not a cheap outing. But fun.

For Championship clubs in the vast majority of games you will be able to get tickets even on the day of the game.
Even Man City with alledged small crowds at the "emptyhad" stadium are up at about 96 per cent sell outs over the season so " 4 together " for the high profile games would be like a lottery win.

One up side,Championship games are just as tightly fought and significantly lower prices.
As Wednesdayite it pains me to recommend our city rivals,but they are doing ok and it's a traditional ground rather than a generic bowl-a-rama that maybe a dozen clubs have moved to in the last 20 years.

That posting about the Chelsea ticket being $300 makes me triple wince.
I can well imagine the face value would have been $70.
As a lifelong fan ,when I had spares I passed them to fellow fans at face value

Chelsea are a perfect storm. Big club + small stadium + London = touts can charge whatever they like and people will pay it.

People always say never use the touts because it's officially illegal, but it is a plausible means of obtaining a legitimate ticket for a game. You'll have to pay a king's ransom for it, and there is a non-zero risk of the ticket being fake/the club discovering the fraud and blocking the ticket, but clearly every week a lot of people successfully use touted tickets to attend games.

I would never recommend using a tout and always endorse taking in the lower league experience which is often more authentic, interesting and passionate. But if there's something that you really really want, the touts are an option.

I remember Chelsea struggling with 13,000 crowds ,so this current version of a " big club" built on very dubious foreign money is a prime example of the rot at the heart of the " Premier league"

Appreciated the “Ozzie” lesson - haha, I did look back and saw that I misspelled Tottenham (makes me cringe to be one of those). From all the posts, I think I am now seeking tickets to a Championship match. Our travel itinerary is still being firmed up, (partially because I’m trying to work in a football match). We are flying into London 4Sep and leaving there 8Sep and likely driving to Bath, then onto Caernerfon for an overnight. Then our plan was to head east, and I would like to stop in Chester briefly, then we were looking to spend a couple days in Manchester or Liverpool. I have read that Manchester is a wonderful city to visit and we have never been so I was hoping to pair that with a football match. From there we are driving north to Glasgow, Oban, Ft. William to enjoy some of Scotland. I am not really interested in a football match in Scotland and prefer to see a match in England. So it is not necessary for me to see a Manchester match, and I don’t even have to go to Manchester, but I was thinking this might be a good pairing option as it originally appeared there was a Manchester City game on 10Sep. Given my loose itinerary, does anyone have any suggestions for me to find match tickets for a Championship league outside of London? In the States we just don’t have the fervor and excitement of England football and I really enjoyed it many years ago and would like our group of 4 to experience that. My desire to see a match outside of London is to experience regional football - London already has many different things to offer. In terms of avoiding touters, yes! I very much want to avoid them, and that is why I posted for advise on this site. I know how to avoid them in the U.S., but after trying to search the internet for “how to buy football tickets in the UK” it was really difficult to find any good advise. You have all given me considerable education, but….what’s my next step?

Like I say outside a very few " local Derbies" ,nearly every Championship game you will be able to buy tickets on the day.
The tv companies have the Premier league in a vice like grip and call the shots on when games are played frequently resulting in late alterations and lunatic times ,it's becoming an increasing bane for regular supporters
Only "upside" is even for me there's an excess of football ,games are often on at least 5 days a week across the country.

Wrexham might be worth a look ,it's north Walesian,and has a very interesting back story with the current Hollywood owners.
The Championship ,league 1 and 2 fixtures are also released on June 23.
Like I say don't stress about prebuying those tickets as POTD, pay on the day, is near certain .
Even in league1, in effect three for us old timers there a half dozen clubs who will get crowds of 20,000 plus

Looks like it's the weekend of the 10th-11th you'll be looking at, when you'll be in the North West. The fixtures for the lower divisions aren't out yet (should be out this coming Thursday), but some non-PL options in the immediate area are:

Wigan Athletic (2nd tier) - former PL team, renowned for being the minnows in the pond. Not hugely well supported but have a pedigree and are close to Manchester.
Bolton Wanderers (3rd tier) - similar to Wigan to an extent. Have floundered a bit in recent years but are well supported. Not a bad option and easy to get to from Mancs.
Rochdale (4th tier) - located on Manchester's periphery, accessible via the city's tram network. Wasn't a huge crowd when I was there. Better visit for convenience than for the atmosphere.
Tranmere Rovers (4th tier) - located near Liverpool, pretty well known club for being the Third Team on Merseyside. Club and ground are nice.
Salford City (4th tier) - close to central Manchester but are a corporate project of former Man U players. Fairly new club and not greatly supported. Probably not worth it.
Stockport County (4th tier) - historic club currently in resurgence, Edgeley Park is a classic ground that I enjoyed going to. Being promoted last year may make them an enthusiastic bunch so possibly a good shout.
Wrexham (5th tier) - famous old club that's been stuck in 5th tier hell for years. Recently bought out by Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds which has seen a surge in attendance, money and support, and also hatred from opposing fans. Could be interesting.
Oldham Athletic (5th tier) - like Rochdale on Mancs' periphery and accessible by tram. Historic club but have recently fallen on hard times. Fans are currently at war with their owners so may not be a good atmosphere

I could recommend teams til the cows come home, especially if you're willing to travel further out into the likes of Yorkshire and Lancashire, so I'll leave the list at this for now.

akkejake ,are your 92-er?

Richard - not even close, just someone who takes in what games I can as I move around the country. What I’ve seen is mostly non-league owing to my own allegiances.

Akkejakke I do appreciate all of the detail, I found it helpful to navigate the nuances of the different choices and would have no way of knowing this myself. The enthusiasm of the fans is definitely worth driving further for in this circumstance. I will view the fixtures that drop on 23Jun and plan around that. Knowing we can purchase tickets same day as the match is a big relief and provides greater flexibility. I am also really happy to learn there will be matches around during the time we are traveling. Thanks again very much appreciated!

I live near Manchester and Liverpool and the former is a great working city with things to see and do, but to be honest if I had one city to visit on my North West trip, it would be Liverpool. Far more to see, two massive cathedrals, football stadium tours, museums galore (maritime, slavery, natural history/space, social history) historic waterfront, great shopping, Beatles, good vibe etc.

Briwire thank you for the advise about Manchester vs Liverpool, I do appreciate it! I also saw online that the National League Fixtures (Wrexham) will be released July 6 so I will wait and see what those look like, as that sounds interesting to me.

Be advised that there is a slim chance games may get moved for TV coverage. Sky has a TV rights deal with the Championship, L1 and L2, however they only tend to move Championship games for coverage unless that league is on an int'l break or there's a particularly high profile game in L1 or suchlike. The Conference has a TV deal with BT Sport, and given their fanbase plus the Hollywood connection Wrexham are a particular favourite of theirs.

I hope that you are able to obtain tickets to either a PL or Championship game. If not, or in addition to, would you consider finding a pub to watch with the locals? My husband and I love the atmosphere with the fans over a pint!

Will you be anywhere near Leeds? We follow Jesse Marsch (coach of Leeds United who managed to keep Leeds out of relegation) and other Americans who play football in England (Pulisic/Chelsea; Turner/Arsenal, Steffen/Man City; Aaronson/Leeds; Anthony Robinson and Tim Ream/Fulham) etc.
Good luck!

Lindy, thank you for the suggestion to consider watching a game at a local pub - yes! That would be great fun also, and I appreciate that suggestion. We will not be near Leeds, but near Chester and hoping to find something within driving distance of that area 8 or 9 September. It looks like the fixtures will not be announced until 30 days prior so I keep checking on line, although it’s still a bit confusing for me and I’m not always sure I’m looking at the correct sites.

National League fixtures came out today, which'll cover you for Wrexham and Chester, among others. obviously still some things to be shifted around for TV but now you can very much draw up your wish list of games to attend.

I did review the fixtures that just came out and it appears the games are on Saturdays only. So I will need to arrange our travel around a Saturday game/location. We were hoping to find a weeknight game on the 8th or 9th somewhere around Chester/Liverpool, etc., or within driving distance, but I’m not finding anything. Do any of the leagues play during the week?

The Livescore APP is good for clicking thru the fixtures
Bit surprised there's no midweek games but to me only feels like football gets going once it's Oct !

On the 10th there's a good few likely subjects.
If you go to a championship game ,inevitably a 3 pm kick off there's almost certain to be a Premier game televised later 7.45 pm enough time to find a cosy pub

Games do get played midweek, however in the lower leagues they tend to be scheduled from the start of the year rather than moved to those days for TV. Cup games often get played in midweek as well.

Thanks again everyone - I’m newer to the RS Travel Forum and not sure if I should edit my topic or just keep going? Thanks to all your great advice I have figured out we need to try to see a match in Scotland instead because we will be in the southwest of Scotland on the 10th. It seems like most of the bigger teams only play on Saturdays. So now my question has changed to Scottish Football: Premiership? Championship League? Or League One or Two? Must get tickets ahead or buy on game day?

I'd suggest to keep going here - maybe edit the title to reflect new information, sort of like, "How to obtain Manchester Football tickets - changed focus" or whatever you think best.

If there is a flag to review that's great, if you keep all or most of the original title, previous contributors will keep reading.

You could edit the text of the Original Post at the end to tell folks to look down to July 10th...

However you do it you will get answers. Just don't zap the original thread - folks who reach out to help don't like to see threads they have worked on disappear in a puff of smoke....

The lower league teams almost but just figuratively get two men and a dog attending.
The obvious choice is " the Old Firm ",Celtic and Rangers.
Celtic likely more achievable as Rangers play to NEAR sell outs ,I would prebook in either case.
Have a soft spot of Heart of Midlothian too,great name, great colours and a great ground.

The lower league teams almost but just figuratively get two men and a dog attending. <<<

===

Do they? (redacted)! You now naff all 'bout football.

Depends where in southwest Scotland you are, but options I can see in that general area for 10th Sep are:

Celtic v Livingston
Kilmarnock v St Johnstone
Queens Park v Greenock Morton
Ayr v Partick Thistle
Stranraer v Dumbarton

In terms of atmosphere Celtic will probably have the best of those, but will be the most expensive. Like I say though the best recommendation will depend entirely on where you are on the 10th.

Do they? (recently redacted)! You now naff all 'bout football.

How's that? Does the dog stay at home these days??? Second man have a limp and sits in the corner?

I think we would like to see Celtics, but unsure if tickets are obtainable for 10Sep. If we went to Edinburgh to see Midlothian, what would that match be like? Well attended? What type of energy from the fans could be expected? Are tickets achievable?

I think I just figured out that single tickets aren’t released until closer to that match day. Should I expect to be able to obtain tickets or do the Celtics sell out?

A quick look shows they average 5000 seats unsold per game.
You should be ok