Jamie Carragher challenges FSG over controversial Liverpool ticket price rises – ‘That’s nonsense’
Jamie Carragher challenges Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group to perform a U-turn on plans to raise ticket prices in line with inflation
13:06, 18 Apr 2026Updated 13:20, 18 Apr 2026
Jamie Carragher on Spenser Street in Bootle(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has urged club owners Fenway Sports Group to drop plans to raise ticket prices, arguing the financial benefit is outweighed by fan anger.
It was confirmed last month that the club were planning to raise the price of tickets in line with inflation over the next three years with match-day operating costs said to have risen by 85% over the last decade at Anfield.
Liverpool are using the UK’s CPI (Customer Price Index) inflation from January of each year to determine the basis of their pricing. Inflation forecast for this calendar year is slate at is 2.3% before dropping to 2%; meaning an increase of 7.3% over the three-year period. As a result, general admission tickets will rise between £3 and £4.50 per match-day ticket over the course of the three years.
Critics, however, have argued the sum of £1.2m, which Liverpool are set to net from the increase, is a paltry sum for a club whose annual revenue broke the £700m barrier for the first time in the most recent financial results, which were published in February.
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The influential supporters’ union, the Spirit of Shankly, organised protests on the back of the news, with an initiative not to spend any money inside Anfield itself implemented for last week’s 2-0 win over Fulham.
Many match-goers labelled the club “greedy b*******” during the victory last week and Reds legend Carragher understands the fans’ frustration, urging FSG to perform a U-turn on the price increase.
“My problem with it is… first of all, I think we’ve got great owners,” Carragher told the ECHO. “No owners of any club are ever popular but they have been absolutely fantastic for us, I’d argue that with the staunchest Red who goes home and away.
“But I don’t understand the ticket price thing in terms of how much they are bringing in from sponsorship and the revenue from the Premier League and when you look at wage bills, Liverpool’s is right up there with the best. And this idea that they need to up ticket prices to pay for these players, it’s absolute nonsense.
“The supporters are not daft, there’s enough out there, the intelligent ones can put the numbers together and say well you’re only going to gain an extra [small amount]. So what do you gain from it really?
“The owners might come back and say their tickets are cheaper than Arsenal or Tottenham but it’s a north-south thing and that is never going to wash. Unfortunately, they live in London, they can put their prices up and you can’t do it here.
“You get it back in different ways at Liverpool, because we are a bigger club than them. We get more sponsorships than them, from whoever it is.
“And when you read about the wages players get, and I am not complaining, I got great wages, footballers deserve what they get, as long as they do their business on the pitch and in the main our players do.
“But no, I just don’t think you need the fight with the supporters over it. There’s no gain [from it].”
Carragher, who played 737 times for the Reds, believes Liverpool are even in a financial position to be able to actually lower prices to earn themselves widespread praise at a time when football supporters across the land are being asked to pay more.
He added: “Listen, you want everything [as a fan]: we want cheap season tickets, tickets to the match, and £30 for an away ticket – that’s a great initiative. But for me, Liverpool are that big a club, it should be (club sponsors) Adidas, it should be Standard Chartered, they should be paying for the wages.
“And wouldn’t it be great if were seen as the club who had the lowest prices or whatever it would be. And listen, there’s a lot of corporate at Anfield who are paying a lot. I am not saying they should pay it because they have got it but they are obviously getting a bit more than just going to watch the game.
“The general admission prices, that’d be a story right around Europe if one of the biggest clubs in the world had the cheapest prices in the Premier League.
“And what would it mean? A few million quid and it wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever [to Liverpool’s finances] when you think of what they have spent so far this season.”
