Revealed: Manchester City cancelled hundreds of FA Cup fifth round tickets bought by Plymouth Argyle fans | OneFootball

Premier League champions Manchester City acted swiftly to cancel hundreds of tickets in home sections of the Etihad Stadium they suspect were held by away fans.

Pep Guardiola and his players came from behind against the Championship outfit on Saturday evening to progress into the quarter-final stage of this season’s FA Cup, in which they are likely to be viewed as favourites to claim the trophy come May.

Headed goals either side of half-time from Manchester City academy graduate Nico O’Reilly flipped the scoring on its head, before Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne combined late on in the contest to ensure of the victory.

An away trip will now await the reigning Premier League champions in the last-eight phase of the competition as they travel to AFC Bournemouth in the next round of the competition, following on from the Cherries’ victory over Wolves at the weekend.

As such, Manchester City have now played their final home FA Cup contest of the campaign, and will not have to contend with the challenges of policing potential infiltrations from expanded visiting allocations again this season – highlighted in a new report.

According to the information of MailSport’s Jack Gaughan, Manchester City cancelled under 250 tickets purchased by Plymouth Argyle fans planning to infiltrate the home ends of the Etihad Stadium for the FA Cup fifth round clash between the two sides.

It has been revealed that supporters from the south coast club bought annual matchday memberships at £35 to then access seats at the Etihad Stadium after the Championship side sold out their 7,800 allocation for the clash with Manchester City.

The club wrote to Argyle fans with a ‘registered address in the Plymouth area’ who ‘had not previously purchased a ticket’ that they were being refunded, while cancelled tickets were attached to those in a 30-mile radius of Plymouth who had not attended a City game before.

Previous concerns over away fans sitting in designated home areas of the Etihad Stadium were raised during high-profile fixtures earlier this calendar year, with Real Madrid visiting the ground in a last-16 play-off tie against Manchester City.

The UEFA Champions League meeting brought about a number of incidents that spread rapidly across social media, including one clip that appeared to show one supporter giving another attendee a haircut from his seat.

Liverpool also caused issued at Manchester City with visiting supporters of the Anfield club found to be sitting in home sections of the Etihad Stadium, while their celebrations among home fans caused a number of violent altercations handled by Greater Manchester Police.