FAI and fans’ fury as touts resell €70 tickets for €500
Websites have prices at seven times face value for World Cup play-off
‘We are absolutely against this practice’
SOCCER chiefs have vowed to ‘take action’ against anyone reselling tickets at inflated prices for Ireland’s World Cup play-off match against Denmark next month.
Ticket touting is not illegal but the Football Association of Ireland said it would block any tickets found to have been resold at inflated prices.
Some tickets for the home match were being offered on re-selling websites yesterday for €500 – which is more than seven times their face value of €70.
Tickets went on pre-sale yesterday, available only to people with season tickets, before going on public sale today.
Some fans were left furious when they were unable to secure tickets yesterday.
One Ireland soccer fan wrote online: ‘Have Ireland v Denmark pre-sale tickets sold out? I had the Ticketmaster page open for about two hours and none available at 11 [in the morning].’
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock said if ticket websites do not act against touts then the Government must.
He said the fact that tickets have gone up on certain websites for several times their face value ‘only hours after the pre-sale and a full day before the general release of tickets to the public underlines once again how truly dysfunctional this market is’.
‘If people want to gouge, they can,’ said Mr Rock. ‘Despite the best efforts of the FAI, IRFU and GAA to stamp this out, what is needed is either a change in regulations from the ticketing companies or a change in legislation from the Government.
‘It’s clear the ticket companies won’t move on this, so therefore Government must.’
FAI season-ticket holders and members are given priority access to the tickets, some of which went on sale yesterday – but within hours many appeared on the StubHub reselling website.
Tickets on the premium middle tier at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for the match on November 14 are selling for an extortionate €500 – more than seven times their face value of €70. Others were on offer for between €170 and €250 for upper tier seats with a face value of €30.
And €50 tickets were being hawked for between €260 and €350 for the lower tier.
A spokesman for the FAI said: ‘We are absolutely against this practice. In many, many cases we have gone and pursued the sellers and blocked these tickets.
‘The Association has been very strong on this and rooted out where examples exist of these exorbitant ticket prices. Action will be taken against anyone found to be selling their ticket on the black market.’
The FAI also promised ‘action will be taken’ against members or season ticketholders found reselling tickets at inflated prices, although the practice is not illegal in Ireland
Many sellers hide a ticket’s ID number from pictures on reselling sites so stadium authorities cannot cancel it.
Consumers’ Association of Ireland chief Dermott Jewell said: ‘So long as consumers purchase these tickets at these ridiculous prices, then examples will not only continue, but increase.’