The club have cancelled over 100 membership cards and said sorry to fans for an “oversight” after seats sold to external groups ten years back were “not detected until recently”
The club acted decisively following a detailed investigation into the illegal secondary selling of tickets for fixtures at St James' Park.
It comes after a educational institution around 200 miles away managing to buy seats for the highly sought-after Champions League home game against FC Barcelona this week.
Newcastle United stated that when the takeover group took over four years ago, they cancelled agreements with commercial partners that allowed them to trade tickets.
Among these was the deal agreed a decade ago with a limited number of event coordinators “to assist school groups” - although the club were unaware they were continuing to trade tickets as there was no official agreement with the organisers.
“During a period when we are striving to ensure legitimate access for followers, we want to be fully transparent and say sorry for this oversight,” the club said.
45 tickets for the fixture were purchased by the Dundee-based school in the same month that over one hundred thousand fans had been in an digital line for the remaining seats for the eagerly awaited fixture.
An official for the school said they purchased them in good faith, after being “contacted” by a provider, but the tickets were later cancelled by the club.
Newcastle have now cancelled a total of 103 season tickets in the past week for violating terms and conditions.
Officials clarifies the current situation is separate from fans re-selling their tickets for St James' in “this instance”.
Third-party agents bought the memberships in the 2015-16 campaign.
The club highlighted that the continued use and unauthorised resale of passes at a “inflated cost” was remained undetected because there was “no official agreement in place for the tour groups”.
“Upon being made aware of this issue, the club took immediate action,” a announcement read.
“The club have not collected any money beyond the original price of these season tickets and have immediately made available the seats for sale to supporters who have registered for the lottery system for upcoming fixtures.”
A fan group recently “welcomed” the club “implementing clear measures to deter and sanction those who may be profiteering from the fanbase”.
“Besides the rise in admission costs, as per our recent poll, one of the primary concerns for supporters is scarce ticket availability because of, not only massive interest, but the distribution of tickets through third party sites or other unauthorised means,” it added recently.
