Getting sold out football tickets?

KatieShopstoomuch

Crazy I know and most likely not going to be MSE but I thought this may be a place I will get the most trustworthy answer. I want to get some football tickets for a game that is on next month. I've noticed a few websites sell them for more than face value but I am worried they are dodgy can anybody recommend a website that is genuine or are they all cons?

Thanks

RachVG

That depends on the game/team/league etc. Starting this season a number of Premier League clubs have launched official partnerships with ticket selling sites like Viagogo, StubHub etc. It means that (for example) people with season tickets who can't make one game can sell their seat for that particular game.

I'm a Sunderland supporter and we've just launched one of these partnerships with StubHub. To get into the ground we have an "access card" which goes into a barcode reader. If I wanted to sell my season ticket seat for our game with Aston Villa next month, I would list it on StubHub. My card would be de-activated by the club for that particular match and the person who buys it would be issued with a ticket of their own so that there's no worry about lending your season ticket to somebody you've never met.

Quite often these sites have the tickets for less than face value because the people selling them aren't touts, they're just genuine supporters who can't make a particular game. You're also fully protected if the game is cancelled - our first match of the season was called off because of rain. For the people who had bought a ticket from StubHub, they could get in touch with StubHub for a refund if they can't make the rearranged date, or they can keep the ticket. The person who has sold their seat has sold it for the fixture, not the date, so if they can now make the rearranged fixture they find themselves in the strange position of having to go onto StubHub themselves and buy a new ticket, which is the downside.

Of course it depends on what the game is and why it's sold out. There were restrictions in place on reselling via StubHub for our match against Newcastle and the same applies for our game against Middlesbrough next week. It's worth looking at those sites though.

Everton & Sunderland are partners of StubHub. Viagogo have partnerships with Aston Villa, Chelsea, Fulham, Man City, Newcastle, QPR, West Brom, West Ham and Wigan.

These obviously work best if you're a fan of the home team, otherwise you'll have to keep quiet if you're in the home end and you support the other team!

KatieShopstoomuch

Hi rach thank you for thw reply it is for a scottish celtic fc game it is for a friend they have found a few for sale extremely high priced but are worries they may be fake or non existent i really have no idea about it as i would only ever buy from the clubs own website and only ever english teams

whatmichaelsays

Barcelona by any chance?

Celtic FC doesn't have an official ticket exchange scheme (such as the one described above) so buying through any unofficial sales channel will come with an element of risk.

Even if they did - if is for the Barcelona game, you'll usually find that spare tickets are more scarce for cup games. These games aren't included in season tickets so there will be few people who buy then realise they can't attend.

Also bear in mind that the resale of tickets through unofficial channels is illegal under Public Order legislation, so anyone offering such tickets is doing so illegally.

KatieShopstoomuch

Hi it is for a european match but no not the barcelona games suppose they are just out of luck. thank you both anyway