Sunderland Players Refund Travelling Fans

Sunderland players will offer a ticket refund to supporters who travelled to watch their side crushed 8-0 at Southampton on Saturday, with around £60,000 to be offered to the 2,500 fans – working out to approximately £24 a person – and any unclaimed money donated to a children’s hospice.

Refunds left unclaimed by 5th November will go to Grace House, a Sunderland-based charity.

Earlier this week goalkeeper Vito Mannone had suggested the players should reimburse the fans for the club’s heaviest loss in the Premier League loss and a performance that manager Gus Poyet described as his ‘most embarrassing’ moment in football.

‘I cannot watch it again,’ said Poyet. ‘I learned a lot about the players – the bad side as some gave up and I know who they are for the future. I feel very sorry for the fans.’

However, while this is certainly not common practice, it is not even the first time this has been done in the top league this year.

On their way to relegation last season Norwich City FC players took it upon themselves to compensate fans for a particularly lacklustre performance against Swansea City – losing 3-0 in the process.

Again, the players refunded each travelling fan the price of the away ticket as a ‘special one-off thank you to the Yellow Army for their fantastic support home and away this season.’

The letter, sent along with a cheque for £20, continued: ‘The whole squad got together this week and decided to repay every fan’s admission price to the game, as a heartfelt gesture of recognition and thanks.’

Nice.

Will this become common practice, where multi-millionaire footballers start to dip into their own pockets for underperforming? Unlikely.

It may or may not be a coincidence that this latest act of recognition comes just a week after the BBC released the latest ‘cost of football’ report – with pundit Robbie Savage claiming that ‘players have no idea what a ticket costs.’

Maybe if they had to refund them every week they’d soon work it out…