Recent months have seen me struggle to get my money back for Aston Villa match tickets because I didn’t have a personal assistant available to attend matches with me.
In September this year I purchased a wheelchair bay along with a free personal assistant ticket for Villa’s europa league match with BSC Young Boys which is due to take place in Birmingham later this week.
Due to circumstances beyond my control I am no longer able to attend the match and contacted the clubs ticket office on October the 15th to get my money back for the purchased tickets.
Those reading this will know by now that I was told it wasn’t possible for the club to offer a refund on home match tickets for the 2025/26 season under their terms and conditions, following this I asked if it would be possible for the tickets to be resold, so that another wheelchair user who wanted to could attend the match.
Once again as you know I was told that there isnt a ticket resale option available for European matches, finally I did get my £55.00 back for the tickets after raising the matter with Francesco Calvo the President of Business Operations at the club.
Last week, Level Playing Field a charity who supports disabled sports fans to be heard by the clubs they support in some cases released the results of there annual fan survey which found that these organisations still have a lot of work to do when it comes to eliminating barriers for our (the disabled) community.
The results show that 56.5% of those surveyed this year said that they would benefit from having the option to bring a Companion/Personal Assistant to matches with them for support.
There was also an increase of 3% from 2024 in respondents saying that they don’t have any access to Companion/Personal Assistant tickets when attending matches.
It is disappointing to see no mention of issues relating to disabled fans having issues with getting refunds for any match tickets purchased, I cannot be the only one who has experienced issues like these at the hands of sports clubs.
My message to sports clubs around this issue is a clear but simple one and is this, please considering reviewing/changing your ticket purchase policy to reflect the ever changing need for disabled sports fans to have a companion or personal assistant with them at venues.
I don’t want to be faced with the same situation as a supporter of Aston Villa or another sports club who I wish to support in the future, don’t wait 5 or 10 years to make this change, sort it out as soon as possible.
2,151 disabled sports fans completed the 2025 fan survey for Level Playing Field compared with the 2,055 from last year, 27% of those identified as being a wheelchair user.
Why not check out my post from last week where I look at the public transport barrier for sports fans With disabilities when attending sports fixtures: https://just-being-cp.co.uk/2025/11/20/in-recent-months-i-have-faced-challenges-with-attending-football-matches-because-of-the-un-reliability-of-rail-services-in-the-midlands/
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Cam
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