Liverpool are working on plans to fill the 2,000 seats that are sold but typically left empty at Anfield on matchdays while also considering a season ticket amnesty.

The club held the first meeting of the local supporters’ forum in January.

A wide variety of topics were discussed but stand out lines included the possible schemes to ensure Anfield is full plus the possibility of an amnesty on season tickets given that significant numbers who attend matches are not the named holder.

Phil Dutton, Liverpool’s head of ticketing and hospitality, revealed the club is determined to reduce the number of unused tickets.

He said: “Our fill rate (the number of seats that are used on a matchday) is around 94% but our sales rate (the number of seats sold) is around 99.6% with the 0.4 per cent being unsold visitor tickets or changes to segregation etc. Every available home seat is sold.

“This is an obvious problem and, like everyone else, I get incredibly frustrated when I see seats left empty at Anfield because I know there are so many people who would readily fill them.

“We need to improve the platform for supporters to use in relation to this matter but we also need people to talk to us.

Show Player

“If someone knows in advance of a game that they aren’t going to make it then if they let us know we can do something about it.

“If they don’t tell us then the problem doesn’t go away because we can’t give a supporter’s seat to someone else if they’re not in it by 10 past three because there’s a risk that the original ticket holder could turn up at quarter past three.”

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Given that there are around 2,000 empty seats for some home games it was suggested that local schoolchildren could turn up at Anfield to fill them but although Mr Dutton admitted that the idea was well meaning, he believes it is impractical.

In terms of children, he said it would be neither pragmatic nor safe to have hundreds of children waiting outside a stadium in the hope that they might get a ticket at an unspecified time. He also said that because the problem involves individual seats being left empty, it would not be suitable for schools who require tickets in groups to allow teachers and pupils to attend together.

Ian Byrne, the Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) delegate, suggested that the club should become more flexible in its approach to ticketing and should be willing to offer fan groups such as SOS and Spion Kop 1906 the opportunity to identify supporters who could take advantage of short notice.

Mr Dutton felt that while that is an option the club would be willing to look at, he would be concerned that the risks associated with ticketing would be passed on to those groups and he was not convinced that would be fair on them or the club.

He said: “We need to work with supporters but the ultimate responsibility for the use of any spare tickets needs to sit with the club.

“Next season we want the fill rate to be 99.9%. But for that to happen we need supporters to talk to us and then we need to find a way to use any tickets that are going spare. This place (Anfield) should be full for every single game.”

(Image: Colin Lane)

Among the ideas that Mr Dutton stated are currently being considered in order to make ticketing more effective, is a season ticket amnesty.

On the possibility of an amnesty, Ste Martin said his concern with that approach would be that it could lead to supporters losing season tickets that have been passed on to them by a family member.

Mr Dutton said that should the club choose to go down that route, such supporters would not be at risk of losing their season tickets with the prime motivation of such an approach being to ascertain exactly who is in possession of the season ticket and who attends Anfield on matchdays, the latter being a particular concern for health and safety reasons.

Mr Byrne urged the club to do everything in its power to free up tickets for supporters, particularly local youngsters, declaring: “Atmosphere is one of our greatest weapons and we need to do everything we can to make the most of it. That’s something that I’m sure everyone would agree is in the club’s best interests.”