Supporters’ trust call for Sky to pay compensation

MANCHESTER United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) are continuing to fight for compensation for fans left out of pocket by the Everton fixture change.

The game was originally due to be played on Saturday October 27, however, it was pushed back to Sunday after City’s game with Tottenham had to be moved to last night.

That meant Sky were one game short on their Super Sunday programme, so a decision was made to move United’s game to the vacant slot.

The lateness of the change meant more than 1,000 supporters have been left out of pocket due to having to change travel and accommodation plans.

MUST have been in discussions with Sky, where they have asked them to foot the bill of what is believed to be in the region of £100,000, but the broadcaster has refused.

“Over 1,000 supporters will have had to pay significant sums to revise their previously booked flights, trains and hotels and others have forfeited their non-refundable bookings as other personal commitments made on the basis of the original fixture time prevented them from attending on the revised match day,” a statement from MUST read.

“When this unprecedented second change was announced, MUST collated evidence from supporters on their potential financial losses and other personal impacts and established a dialogue with Sky where we put the case for an exceptional compensation process.

“We said that supporters had made arrangements on the basis of the previously confirmed date, to which SKY had not made any caveats about a potential further change. Specifically, we asked for a compensation arrangement based on submitted evidence of non-recoverable costs.

“In their response to us this week SKY have acknowledged that the fixture change was a commercial decision to preserve their valuable Super Sunday schedule after the Spurs/City match was moved to a new televised slot of Monday evening. While expressing sympathy for affected supporters, however, they have sought to shift responsibility for any compensation.” THERE aren’t many ways to productively pass 10 seconds in your day.

You can stick the kettle on, refresh your social media, or even run 100 metres. Well, if you’re Olympic legend Usain Bolt you can do all three.

However, it took longer than that for United midfielder Paul Pogba to run up to take his penalty against Everton on Sunday afternoon.

Pogba took just under 12 seconds to finally hit his spot kick at Old Trafford on Sunday, more than two seconds longer than it took Bolt to set the 100m world record of 9.58 in 2009.

A video on social media has since gone viral as it juxtaposed Pogba’s tedious run-up technique with the electric speed shown by Bolt – himself trying to now make it as a footballer – at the 2009 World Championships.

It seems the extra time to take the penalty played against the World Cup winner as he saw his effort palmed away by keeper Jordan Pickford.

Thankfully for Pogba, he calmly slotted away the rebound, but in the meantime took his tally to 92 steps taken in the run up to five penalties this season.

In contrast, it took Bolt just 41 steps to claim the sprinting world record nine years ago.

However, speaking after the victory over Everton, manager Jose Mourinho refused to criticise the World Cup winner’s confidence from the spot: “I like the fact he wants to take the penalty but maybe he needs to change his approach.”