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Players make generous offer

Last updated : 13 December 2014 By Paul Farrington

The Elland Road club are asking for upto £41 a ticket for adult supporters and a number of fanzine websites have grouped together to arrange a boycott of the fixture.

However the allow supporters to be able to afford the game, and bring the prices in line with those expected at Championship level, the Latics players have generiously offered to pay half the ticket price for the first £500 supporters.

This is a goodwill gesture that could cost the squad £9,000.

Speaking to the club's official website about the gesture, manager Malky Mackay said: “It was something that we spoke about because of the price of the ticket at Leeds on Boxing Day. 

“It’s very traditional for people to go to football on Boxing Day and we have fans that go and that’s important, we have a lot of respect for our away fans.
 
“I spoke to the players, asked them, because I couldn’t force them to do it, and to a man it was absolutely the case with them not having a problem with contributing at all.
 
“I’m really proud of the players to be able to do that and I hope that our fans turn out, I’m sure they will.”

The gesture is clearly a very generous offer from the players but does not address the underlying issue of ticket prices.

Perhaps the FA should focus some attention on this issue as the prohibitive ticket prices go against the tradition of Boxing day football.