Ireland Euro tickets being sold at 30 times face value

With Uefa accepting applications for its final distribution of tickets and the FAI continuing to work on its end of the process, tickets to all of Ireland's group games were available on ticket reselling sites yesterday at hugely inflated prices.

Reselling tickets or even advertising their resale is prohibited under Uefa regulations.

However, sites like Viagogo, Ticketbis and Livefootballtickets were openly selling large numbers of them. All had seats available in every price category and all could guarantee up to four adjoining seats.

Prices varied between the extortionate and laughable, with the cheapest generally ranging from €275 to €400 for a single ticket. One site, Ticketbis, listed some category three seats for the game between Ireland and Sweden in Saint Denis (face value €55) at €5,291.20 each.

More routinely tickets are being advertised at anything from three to 30 times their face value.

Viagogo’s highest priced category four ticket for Ireland’s second group game, against Belgium in Bordeaux on June 18th, is €888. The website falsely states that the tickets it is selling for the tournament have face values of at least €75 – they are €25 on the Uefa portal.

Cancelled

In Rule 8.1 of its ticketing regulations, Uefa states that the advertising for, or actual resale of, tickets is “strictly prohibited”. Rule 8.5 states that tickets that are resold can be cancelled, those attempting to gain access to game can be refused entry and that the police may be called.

Even it its more readily available Q&A section (which includes the magnificent question: Can I bring my pet to the stadium?), the organisation makes it clear that tickets will be personalised with the purchaser’s name on them and that this person must be present when he or she and any guests are entering the ground with the tickets in question. Photo ID, it is stated, can be requested and must be provided – otherwise, it says, entry can be refused. Despite this, the websites are openly selling the tickets, with Livefootballtickets.com claiming to have 172 tickets on sale for the Sweden game, 174 for the Belgium game and 80 for the Italy game.

Viagogo, which has previously operated official resale services with some English Premier League clubs, and Ticketbis – these were just the three sample sites selected – both appear to have very significant numbers available too.

One site lists tickets for the final in all categories up to and including corporate hospitality packages, priced by the site at €20,500 each.

At successive previous tournaments such reselling, or touting, has effectively been tolerated because of the practical difficulties in clamping down on it.

One senior Fifa official told The Irish Times prior to the World Cup in 2002 that implementing the identity checks required to enforce the rules outside stadiums was practically impossible due to the delays it would cause.

Security

But in the wake of the attack on the Stade de France on November 13th, it might have been expected that a more serious attempt would be made to implement the regulations this time.

In relation to stadium safety, in particular, it would seem that the personal details provided by purchasers would serve as a basic initial security measure. It seems, however, that nothing whatsoever has changed.

Meanwhile, it appears that the FAI is to receive a slightly better than expected allocation for Ireland’s games. Uefa is now expected to provide Irish fans with between 17 and 19 per cent of the tickets available for each match. It had been thought 16 per cent would be made available. This means that, in the case of the Sweden match in Saint Denis, there could be an extra 2,200 tickets for Irish supporters.

The FAI has delayed its announcement of how it will handle ticket distribution and in the meantime supporters can apply in the normal way through the Uefa website.

Confirmation of the team’s base for the tournament is also expected over the coming days.

Versailles now looks to be the most likely choice. If it is selected, it would leave the squad some 20 kilometres from Paris and just over 30 from the Stade de France, where Ireland’s opening game will take place.

The players and officials would stay at the Trianon Palace Hotel, which is situated in woodlands close to the actual Palace of Versaille and boasts its own two-star Michelin restaurant.

Training would be at the nearby 3,500-seat Stade de Montbauron, home of FC Versailles, who play their football in the seventh tier of the French leagues.