Tickets for the Euro 2020 semi-final and final at Wembley are currently selling for as much as £20,000.
The astronomically priced match tickets are available to buy on reselling websites Live Football Tickets and Ticombo – despite Uefa’s bid to ban the resale of tickets for above face value.
Fans have been buying up tickets for the semi-final which may involve England next Wednesday and the final on Sunday 11 July – gambling on the hope Gareth Southgate’s team will make it through what is seen as a favourable draw.
England need to beat Ukraine on Saturday in Rome to face either Denmark or Czech Republic in Wednesday’s game.
Tickets for both matches are now sold out on the official Uefa website although tickets for the first semi-final which won’t involve England are still available.
Euros tickets must be displayed digitally on Uefa’s EURO Tickets app on arrival at games with paper tickets not available.
Despite Uefa’s attempt to ban the resale of tickets, they are widely available online for inflated prices with sellers able to transfer tickets just by asking buyers for their email address.
On resale site Ticombo semi-final tickets for Wednesday 7 July were on sale for between £654 – £20,278. Uefa sold tickets for the game for €195- €595 (£168-£512). Final tickets were £1,109- £7,005, all higher than Uefa’s prices which were €295- €945 (£254-£812).
On Live Football Tickets website Wednesday’s semi-final tickets were £645- £6,499 and final tickets were £1,079- £20,150. The top priced ticket on the site for the final was a Bobby Moore hospitality ticket. Category 1 tickets, the most expensive regular tickets Uefa sold for £812, were on sale for £11,995.
Uefa also sells hospitality tickets for the matches with semi-final prices starting at €2,800 (£2,406) and final prices at €5,900 (£5,067).
Both ticket websites list their offices overseas, with Live Football Tickets based in Madrid, Spain and Ticombo in Berlin, Germany.
Anti-touting group Fanfair Alliance have warned fans not to buy tickets from touts because many sites have offices abroad and don’t comply with UK laws. Uefa also warn some sellers might not be in possession of the tickets they claim to have. However it appears many England fans have not been put off.
The sites both have mostly good reviews on review website Trust Pilot.
One fan, who bought tickets from Live Football Tickets for the England Germany match at Wembley last Tuesday, told i: “They sell tickets all the time so I know they are trusted. All I did was read the reviews online and I knew they were legit.
“I am definitely going to buy semi-final and final tickets through them providing England get past Ukraine.”
The fan, 38, who asked not to be named, bought two tickets for a total of £1,622.40, with each ticket costing £624 each, with a taxes/service charge fee of £187.20 then added.
The fan had no issues with the service, he said: “Once you bought the ticket, you download the app if you haven’t already got it. The tickets then get transferred to your name and appear on the app ready to go. It would also be no problem to sell on the ticket you just put in the email address linked to the app of the person who is buying them then press transfer and they get sent them electronically. It’s so easy.”
In a statement sent to i, Uefa said: “All tickets for Uefa Euro 2020 are issued by Uefa and are subject to strict terms and conditions which prevent their unauthorised resale and transfer.
“Uefa encourages fans not to be duped by touts who demand exorbitant prices despite often not being in possession of the tickets they claim to have for sale.
“Any tickets which are offered for sale on secondary ticketing platforms, social media, marketplaces etc. are advertised in breach of the ticket terms and conditions that all ticket buyers agree to before the purchase.
“Our organisation has actively enforced its ticket terms and conditions, including by monitoring the internet for unauthorised offers.
“Uefa will not hesitate to take action (including cancelling tickets) where such unauthorised offers are identified and take legal proceedings against third parties involved in the unauthorised resale of tickets, as we have done in the past.”
Live Football Tickets and Ticombo have been approached for comment.
