Fans frustrated as Newcastle v Barcelona tickets bought by Dundee school

The chair of the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust says it “stings” that dozens of tickets for the Champions League home game against Barcelona were bought by a school based nearly 200 miles away.

Such was the demand, there were over 110,000 users in an online queue as remaining seats for next week’s hotly anticipated opening group match at St James’ Park went on sale on Tuesday.

But it has emerged that 45 tickets for the 18 September fixture had already been claimed by the High School of Dundee, which purchased them after being “approached by an approved provider”.

This comes at a time when members are “fighting every week to get a ticket”, in the words of Lisa Mole, chair of the supporters’ trust.

“We are not saying that we don’t want young fans to be brought into the stadium and to experience the matches,” she said. “I just think there’s such a consensus at the minute about how bad the ticketing situation is that anything like this adds fuel to the fire.

“We have members who pay a membership fee every year who are not guaranteed a ticket and we have had numerous members contact us who did not get one ticket in the ballot last season.

It is understood that Newcastle did not supply any tickets directly to the school group.

A similar number of students from the Dundee independent school previously took in Newcastle’s most recent Champions League game against AC Milan in 2023.

Regarding the Barcelona game tickets, a spokesman for the school said: “The High School of Dundee was approached by an approved provider and the tickets were bought as part of a group package.”

Buying tickets from sources other than directly from a club is not necessarily a new phenomenon in the game.

David Burt, a former Newcastle player, is a sports sales consultant at GB Sports Tours in north-east England.

Burt, who has “never been successful in the ballot” as a Newcastle fan, has seen it both ways.

“We have had school groups from up here in Newcastle and various areas going to Man City,” he said. “Sometimes they might be playing Newcastle or another good team and have said, ‘Can we get tickets for a game?'”

Newcastle season ticket holders were able to guarantee their ticket for all of the club’s Champions League home games by joining the cup scheme.

The rest were then split.

The supporters’ trust explained how some tickets were balloted and others were placed on general sale to those with a club membership – which costs £37 for an adult and £20 for a child – and to season ticket holders who did not enter the cup scheme.