Liverpool’s hopes of selling more Anfield tickets to supporters of fierce rivals Manchester United have been dashed by Liverpool City Council.
The council's ground safety advisory group, which oversees safety at Anfield and rival’s Everton ’s Goodison Park home, had been asked by the club to change their current rules regarding United fans.
The Anfield Road Stand’s lower tier, where the away fans are situated, is currently subject to safety measures known as ‘seat kills’.
This ultimately means some seats are deliberately left empty in parts of the away area, and is currently only used by Liverpool for home matches against United.
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The safety measures are used to tackle ‘persistent standing’, but the Reds were hoping that the council would alter the current protocol.
The Liverpool Echo claims that the Premier League giants had requested the number of rows subjected to ‘seat kill’ to be reduced from four to two.
That would allow the club to sell more tickets to be sold to Manchester United fans.
However the request has been rejected by the police and council, while the the rules could also potentially be put in place for Cardiff City visits.
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According to the report, the minutes of the February meeting say: "Building Control considered this request and consulted with the Police, and LFC who were all in agreement that in this regard Building Control would not recommend acceptance of the change.
“The seat kill for Manchester United would remain as currently in force and would now also apply to Cardiff City."
Liverpool are currently fighting for European and Premier League glory, and face Porto in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday night.
