Man City chairman Al Mubarak pledges sensitivity on ticket prices after second consecutive freeze

Manchester City have frozen season-ticket prices for a second consecutive year after fan board City Matters again persuaded the club to hold back a planned increase, with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak acknowledging the difficulty of striking the right balance for supporters.

Speaking in his annual interview with the fanbase, Al Mubarak said the club is determined not to place supporters “under distress” as it navigates the competing pressures of running a competitive football operation. “The fans are at the heart of the success of any club,” he said. “The ticketing issue is an issue that is not easy because from one part we are investing and we are trying to keep investing and we have to keep that model sustainable. From another perspective, the fans are at the heart, and we have to be very sensitive to the ticketing price issue.”

The freeze comes alongside changes to the club’s unpopular ticket transfer system — a sign, Al Mubarak suggested, that supporter feedback is being acted upon. “We have a very good line of communication with our fans and we hear them,” he said. “I am committed to it, the club is committed to it.”

The chairman had spoken last summer about the importance of the fanbase following a series of notable protests from supporters towards the end of the 2024/25 season. Those tensions have not fully dissipated, and the club faces a particularly sensitive period heading into the new campaign.

From August, City will open more than 7,000 new seats in the expanded North Stand, while the team enters a new era following Pep Guardiola’s departure as manager. The combination of a larger stadium, a transitional squad, and an already restless support base means the pressure on the club’s relationship with its fans is unlikely to ease.

Al Mubarak framed the pricing challenge as one shared across football. “Every club has to manage between the cost of inflation, the cost of operating a business to be competitive and the needs of its stakeholders, which are the fans,” he said. “Every club deals with these same issues. They deal with them differently because the way they have to balance it is different between club to club. I’d like to think we do it our own way and in a way that is distinct and that takes the fans at heart.”