Revenue / 04.16.18

World Cup 2018 Tickets 'On Sale for 40 Times Face Value'

Access Staff

Original article published on Evening Standard (04/16/18) by Thomas Hornall

The consumer rights group Which? reports that tickets for the 2018 World Cup have been illegally promoted for almost 40 times face value on secondary seller websites. Last month, tickets were on sale for up to £5,618 each across five separate sites, including StubHub and Ticombo. Which? also notes two premium category one tickets for the England versus Tunisia match in June were listed for between £480 and £11,237 even though the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) website advertised them for £296. "Football fans need to be aware that if they buy a World Cup ticket from an unofficial source, they risk paying inflated prices and potentially not getting into the game at all," warns Which?'s Alex Neill. "If you don't want to risk watching the World Cup from the sidelines, you should only buy from the official FIFA reselling website." Ticombo claims it is not breaching any laws by trading tickets, and refutes the charges leveled against it. "If FIFA has a problem with fans wishing to sell their ticket to a third party, it has a problem not with Ticombo, but with the free market itself," the seller contends. Meanwhile, StubHub insists it does not permit the resale of World Cup tickets on its U.K. site, blaming a technical error for their listing.

Read the full story on the Evening Standard website.

Tags: Sports , Reselling , News , StubHub , Secondary Ticketing