Another Dundee school releases official confirmation of their Newcastle v Barcelona tickets blocked | OneFootball

The Dundee school scandal has rumbled on regarding Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.

The High School of Dundee was the first Dundee school to find themselves at the centre of this ticket storm. When eight days ago it went public that they had somehow been able to get hold of a coachload of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.

Newcastle United members left sickened that this was the case, when more than 100,000 failed to get a ticket in an online queue when the ticket sale happened. Only a lucky few thousand had been successful, in a queue that exceeded 110,000.

It later transpired that back in 2015, the Mike Ashley regime had given access to tour operators some large blocks of season tickets, allowing them to buy them each season and then sell on in packages to schools. With this appearing to be predominantly Scottish schools.

Newcastle United fans sitting in the Leazes/Milburn corner had become used to seeing these large groups of Scottish schoolchildren and when this continued after the takeover, The Mail have reported that many complaints were made by fans to the club but nothing changing.

When the High School of Dundee lost their coachload of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets, the club said they had cancelled these season tickets due to a breaking of the rules. Rather bizarrely, the club claiming that no senior staff at the club had any idea this had been going on, even though it was coming up to four years since the change of ownership. Large groups of Scottish schoolchildren who aren’t Newcastle fans, able to easily access tickets for St James’ Park.

When the story first broke about the High School of Dundee having access to a coachload of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets, here at The Mag we discovered (see report below) that at least one other Dundee school, the Harris Academy, also had a coachload of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets. Rather strangely, this was ignored by the rest of the media, even though as we reported, it was openly promoted on their school website.

That Dundee school, the Harris Academy, have now been forced to tell the kids at their school, that their Newcastle v Barcelona tickets have also been cancelled, as reported by this Dundee newspaper…

The Courier report – 16 September 2025:

A second Dundee school trip to Newcastle United’s Champions League clash with Barcelona has been cancelled.

Harris Academy’s booking was axed just hours after the Magpies apologised to fans after a backlash over tickets being offered to schools in the City of Discovery for the sold-out Champions League game.

The English Premier League club last week cancelled several tickets offered to pupils at The High School of Dundee for Thursday’s blockbuster European tie.

The fee-paying school was set to take 45 pupils to St James’ Park after being “approached by an approved provider”, but these briefs were cancelled amid growing fan pressure.

On Monday night, Harris Academy chiefs told parents the trip, organised through sports tour operator Premiership Experience, was still going ahead.

But less than 24 hours later, the plug was pulled on the Tyneside adventure for safety reasons.

A letter sent to parents on Tuesday, seen by The Courier, read: “We’ve been informed earlier today, via Premiership Experience, that Newcastle United have cancelled ticket allocation, citing the safety of our young people as a reason for the decision.

“Regrettably, the trip has been cancelled, and a full refund will be arranged.

“I assure you that we, as a school, will work with the company to arrange a suitable alternative to the trip with the young people who should have been going to Newcastle, having first refusal.”

The £299 package included tickets to Newcastle United vs Barcelona, travel, accommodation, breakfast and a stadium tour of both St James’ Park and the Stadium of Light, the home of local rivals Sunderland.

An angry parent said: “It’s a real shame for the kids, first and foremost.

“I know my child was really looking forward to the experience, and I’m sure that’s the same across the board.

“It looks to me like Newcastle United have made a real mess of their ticketing situation and these kids at Harris – and the school itself, which I firmly believe took up the offer of this trip in good faith – are having to suffer the consequences.

“It’s just terribly unfair to everybody involved up here.”

A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “Harris Academy has been informed by the tour organiser that tickets have been cancelled by Newcastle United for what are described as safety reasons.

“The school is passing on information to pupils and families.”

Kirkcudbright Academy, in Dumfries and Galloway, last week cancelled a trip to Saturday’s Newcastle vs Wolves clash due to safety fears.

A spokesperson for D&G Council confirmed the tickets were organised through an external provider, PE5 Sports Tours, and said the decision to cancel the trip was made by the company.

The Mag report – 10 September 2025:

Earlier today, we reported on a Dundee school (High School of Dundee) having been handed a load of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets.

This coinciding with over 100,000 Newcastle United members failing to get Newcastle v Barcelona tickets in the ballot and/or queue sale.

It was NUST (Newcastle United Supporters Trust) who had highlighted (see below) this Dundee school having been handed 45 Champions League tickets for the game at St James’ Park on Thursday 18 September 2025.

That was bad enough.

However, when digging deeper, it turned out that this same Dundee school had received more than 50 tickets for the last big SJP Champions League match, when Newcastle United hosted AC Milan in December 2023.

All very strange.

Though this does fit in with a more general problem Newcastle United members are facing, seeing the Newcastle United owners supplying tickets to large groups of non-NUFC fans for whatever reason…

Just when you thought things couldn’t get even stranger…

After running that Dundee school story this morning, here at The Mag we received an email from a parent of a pupil at the High School of Dundee.

The parent was unhappy due to the fact that we were specifically referring to this as Newcastle v Barcelona tickets being supplied to a private school in Dundee that charges up to £20k a year per pupil.

‘I was just wondering if you were going to do an article that mentions how two state secondary schools in Dundee have also been allocated 50 tickets per school for the Newcastle v Barcelona match? Harris Academy and St Johns School. It is not just private schools that get offered these tickets.’

Supplying a coachload of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets to non-NUFC fans at a random school in Dundee was beyond belief.

Surely it couldn’t be true that the Newcastle United owners are supplying coachloads of tickets to multiple Dundee schools for any game at St James’ Park, never mind NUFC’s biggest and most glamorous match of the season???

We asked the Dundee parent who sent this email whether they could show us anything to back up this bizarre claim. The parent replied that they had it verbally on good authority, as the information came from parents who have children at these two other schools, but that they didn’t want to send on any letter/documentation on the Newcastle v Barcelona tickets trip, in case they got into trouble.

Well…

I happened to have a contact up in Dundee and asked if they could see if they could find out anything.

No confirmation on St Johns School in Dundee, as yet. It doesn’t help either when their official school website is a single page and you can’t search for any info.

As for Harris Academy, a state school in Dundee?

They actually have a very decent official school website (though not quite at the levels of the £20k per pupil per year one!).

This is what is on the Harris Academy site, a newsletter for pupils…

Can’t see exactly how many Newcastle v Barcelona tickets this Harris Academy in Dundee has been handed but safe to say it will surely be at least a coachful.

As yet there is nothing I have seen to back up the claim that at least one more (a third) Dundee school (St Johns) has received Newcastle v Barcelona tickets, BUT I think that you have to accept this is very very likely to be the case, when that parent flagged up these two other Dundee schools and has been proved correct on the other (Harris Academy).

No wonder there is so little transparency from the Newcastle United owners on how many Newcastle United members there are AND how many tickets the members are allocated each match.

If coachloads of kids and teachers in Dundee who don’t support Newcastle United and aren’t members are being handed all these Newcastle v Barcelona tickets, how many are NUFC handing to other groups and individuals who aren’t fans, aren’t members? Match after match, including/especially the very biggest games.

I can only imagine how disheartening this must be for the 100,000+ Newcastle United members who failed to get tickets for next week’s Champions League match and indeed, face such a struggle to get tickets for any match at St James’ Park.

The bare minimum they deserve is honesty and transparency from the Newcastle United owners, why won’t they tell us where all the tickets go to each match and exactly how many (how few!!!) are left over for Newcastle United members…

The Mag report earlier today – 10 September 2025:

Newcastle v Barcelona tickets have dominated recent days.

Newcastle United fans desperate to be at what most supporters will consider the biggest match of the season.

Last week the match by match selling of Newcastle v Barcelona tickets kicked off. In the ballot, a lucky few thousand getting tickets as 100,000+ Newcastle United members entered the ballot.

On Tuesday (9 September 2025) it was the queue sale for Newcastle United members.

When that sale opened at 10am, well over 100,000 Newcastle United members (Adults pay £37 each season and kids £20 to be a member, which you need to be to to enter the ballot and/or the queue sale) were in the queue.

The final few thousand Newcastle v Barcelona tickets were very quickly sold out to those at the front of the queue, over 100,000 behind them in the queue left ‘disappointed’.

Imagine then how these 100,000+ Newcastle United members felt on Tuesday night when this came to light via NUST (Newcastle United Supporters Trust)…

As you can see, 45 tickets handed to the High School of Dundee, which is a private school that currently charges (see here) up to £20,606 (and 40p!) per year for each pupil.

So, 100,000+ Newcastle United members paying £37 (£20 for kids) a year membership end up with no tickets, then find out a coachload of tickets are being given to a random £20k a year school in Dundee.

Quite ironic that it is £20 a year membership for Newcastle United supporting kids who are denied Newcastle v Barcelona tickets, whilst kids in Dundee who aren’t Newcastle fans can get tickets, due to their parents paying £20k a year for the school fees.

As Newcastle United members will tell you, it is a common thing that when you are lucky enough to get tickets via ballots/queue sales. Especially if you end up in the Milburn/Leazes corner, you will time after time see large groups of people, including kids not from Newcastle.

How do you automatically know these people aren’t United Newcastle fans? Well, when United are scoring goals it is quite clear that these are neutrals who have got hold of precious tickets because they don’t react when NUFC score. Even worse, when this happens to be a match against one of a group of certain Premier League clubs, some of these ‘neutrals’ are reacting positively to goals, just not the ones scored by Newcastle United!

If you think this is all exaggeration and this episode is just a one-off with a random school in Scotland.

How about the most recent Champions League match at St James’ Park in December 2023, when if Newcastle United won their final group game against AC Milan they were guaranteed to progress to the knockout stage.

You might recognise this school that got over 50 tickets for that match, on a trip that included coaching at the Academy at…Sunderland.

High School of Dundee official site – 23 December 2023:

‘Amazing Football Experience For HSD Pupils.

Pupils from HSD travelled down south this month for an incredible football-themed trip, which included a training session at Sunderland and a Champions League game!

More than 50 pupils and staff made the trip to Newcastle, where they were given a chance to train with Sunderland coaches at their Beacon of Light training facility.

They then visited the Metrocentre before heading to St James’ Park to watch Newcastle take on AC Milan.

The pupils got the chance to soak in the famous atmosphere as they enjoyed the thrilling match which ended in a 2-1 victory for the Italian side.’

All Newcastle United fans, all Newcastle United members, know all too well that demand massively outstrips supply, when it comes to tickets. They know they are competing with so many other NUFC fans.

However, to then have their noses rubbed in it with stuff like this, the Newcastle United owners doing this, so many tickets going to people who aren’t NUFC fans.

Is this simply a money making exercise, instead of getting £60 or so from Newcastle fans, are the club selling these packages to groups of non-Newcastle fans for £150 a ticket, £200 a ticket?

Or is it simply because one of the Newcastle United directors or senior staff has some attachment to this £20k a year school in Dundee, maybe they are an ex-pupil or mates with the headteacher? That of course doesn’t explain why so many other large groups of neutrals get so many tickets match after match.

The transparency from the club is non-existent.

They won’t even say how many Newcastle United members there are, how many apply in ballots for a match, how many tickets are made available to NUFC members for each of the matches.

Other clubs such as Arsenal and others do this, why not Newcastle United?

Then you have all the tickets that every match end up on third party reselling sites, where do they come from and why are the Newcastle United owners doing nothing about that?