Premier League: Ticket touting a 'significant and rising' problem

Top Premier League clubs each have between 8-12,000 season tickets, memberships and hospitality tickets under the control of touts, claims a leading security expert.

Reg Walker, of Iridium Consultancy, believes it is a "significant, rising" problem that requires "cohesive, co-ordinated action" from authorities.

A number of Premier League clubs have been highlighting the issue, with Arsenal, Brighton and Leeds recently saying they are cracking down on it.

Walker told BBC Sport the black market of Premier League ticket touting is worth more than £50m per year, but the true scale of the issue is "much underrated".

"It's certainly getting worse season by season," said Walker. "If you take 10 years ago, a major football tout would have had maybe a couple of hundred club memberships.

"Now you're looking at touts with, in some instances, over 1,000 memberships."

Fan 'memberships' are where people can register their details with the club - often for a nominal annual fee - and receive certain ticketing benefits ahead of the general public.

In January, Brighton blocked 150 mostly Liverpool fans from gaining entry to the home section of the Amex Stadium for their FA Cup fourth-round tie.

The Seagulls discovered touts had set up multiple fake accounts to buy tickets from the club before reselling them for up to £250. The club blocked the tickets, calling it an "absolutely shameless exploitation of football fans".

As recently as Tuesday, Arsenal said they had recently blocked "100,000 suspected bots" from their ticketing site.

In a statement, they added: "A significant number of season ticket and membership accounts have also been banned for suspicious touting activity."

"Certainly more could be done, and certainly it needs to be co-ordinated by the Football Association and the Premier League," said Walker, who added there has been a "small number of instances" of ticket touting corruption within clubs.

"There needs to be cohesive, co-ordinated action around the UK rather than it just be left to each individual club.

"It's not a club problem, this is a football problem and it needs the FA and the Premier League to take leadership on this."

What does the law say?

The current law is "absolutely inadequate", says Walker. Under section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, it is a criminal offence for an unauthorised person to sell a ticket for a designated football match.

However, the offence is summary only, meaning offenders can only be issued with a fine.

According to Home Office figures on football-related offences, just 13 arrests were made for offences related to ticket touting during the 2021-22 season.

That figure has largely been declining season on season since there were 104 arrests in 2013-14.

In 2018, one top-flight club cancelled just under 8,000 memberships that had been acquired by touts, according to Walker.

He added it is not uncommon to see some 200 fans per game turned away at ticket turnstiles with invalid tickets - a figure that is only "scratching the surface".

Walker - who works with the government on the issue and was involved with anti-ticket touting work at the 2012 Olympics - believes further action is necessary to protect fan safety, with many touted tickets often seating supporters in areas reserved for rival fans.

"I think in the current climate, safety is the biggest factor," he said.

"Football is emotive. It's very tribal, so if you are, say, the only Everton fan in the Liverpool end and your team scores and you cheer, that's not going to end well.

"There is a huge problem with public safety, especially also with the unfortunate increase we're seeing in violence at football matches as well, so it's really important that fans are kept safe.

"The legislation was put in place because organised gangs of football hooligans were getting tickets in the opposing team's fans' end and causing absolute carnage.

"We don't want to go back to that situation, so it's essential that we do crack down on touting at football matches in order to prevent public order situations occurring and keep people safe."

What is being done about it?

Many Premier League clubs have switched to digital tickets in a bid to stamp out ticket touting - as well as for environmental reasons - though some still rely on paper tickets.

Since going digital at the start of the season, it is understood Leeds United have noticed a marked improvement in reducing the number of people with invalid tickets gaining access to Elland Road.

The club have put extra stewards and customer services staff on gates to help fans who do not have access to smartphones and still use paper tickets.

However, from Sunday, when Leeds host Manchester United at Elland Road, the club will remove the option for fans to print their tickets at home - and nobody will be able to access the stadium without a digital ticket.

"Mobile ticketing offers incredible tools to clubs in order to track the life of a ticket," said Walker.

"You can track from its sale right through to the person that presents it for entry at the gate. You can monitor how many tickets an account is transferring every year.

"It gives you an incredible ability to detect touting activity, to detect the unauthorised resale of tickets and to shut off about 90% of the haemorrhage of tickets on to the black market."

The FA urges fans "to only purchase tickets through official sources", telling BBC Sport it has "strong and rigorous procedures in place" to prevent ticket touting around Wembley Stadium.

The Premier League has produced a list of unauthorised ticket websites on which touted tickets have been known to be sold, and urges fans to exercise caution when using such websites.

Indications that a ticket could be invalid include heavily inflated ticket prices, tickets on sale many months before a game is scheduled to take place, no confirmation of seat numbers, and large numbers of tickets being on sale for a high-profile match.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council's lead for football policing, said: "Ticket touting is a criminal offence, and those who are caught exploiting genuine fans through these means will face action.

"We support any proposals made to prevent ticket touting and will continue to work in partnership with clubs and leagues to clamp down on these offences."

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