UK Euro seats touted online to foreign yobs
MONEY-GRABBING ticket touts are putting football fans’ lives at risk by offering seats in home stands to foreign thugs.
Online ticket resale outfit Viagogo had seats for Liverpool’s home Champions League fixture with Spartak Moscow in December on sale abroad for £436 each. That means Liverpool’s famous Kop could be invaded by Russia’s feared “Ultra” hooligans.
A Sunday Mirror investigation discovered Viagogo was doing the same for other Euro games, including Real Madrid’s visit to Spurs at Wembley on Wednesday. Other online touts have already caused chaos by selling home seats abroad. Last month’s Arsenal game against Cologne in the Europa League was delayed when 20,000 of the German club’s fans descended on London. There was uproar inside the stadium when hundreds of the away supporters, who had obtained home seats illegally, tried to join fellow fans in the away section. Our source said: “Viagogo are openly selling away fans tickets in home ends for up-coming Champions League games.
“We had Arsenal delayed and now have risky games, with Russians being sold tickets in the home end of Anfield. But no one is putting a stop to this illegal behaviour. You can’t view the tickets in the UK, it’s for away fans only.
DISASTER
“It’s awful. Do we need another major incident for people to take notice?”
Ticket industry expert Reg Walker warned that fans could end up dying because of the way secondary ticketing sites are allowed to operate.
He said: “It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Someone is going to end up getting killed.
“The Arsenal game could have ended up much worse than it did. Away fans in the Arsenal end were literally fighting their way to get with their mates from Cologne.
“Eastern Europe has got some nasty thugs.”
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson said: “There are worries around safety that must be addressed before we see fatalities in football, all because touts want to make a quick buck.”
Merseyside Police said its football unit is probing the Spartak ticket sales.
Viagogo did not want to comment.
lewis.panther@ trinitymirror.com