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World Cup: unauthorised ticket sellers

World Cup: unauthorised ticket sellers

Posted by Team England at 13:53 on Thursday 01 March 2018

On Monday 19 January The Hamburg District Court in Germany issued a preliminary injunction against third-party ticket seller Viagogo, banning the company from offering tickets for the 2018 World Cup.

The court stated that Viagogo was misleading potential ticket buyers by claiming that it had valid and deliverable tickets to the tournament, despite this not being the case. The court also found that by offering overpriced tickets that were not yet available Viagogo was increasing the risk of fans not receiving tickets that they bought and paid for. 

FIFA have since announced that they are in support of this preliminary injunction as it will protect fans against Viagogo's misleading campaign and prevent them from buying potentially overpriced tickets that they may not even receive. FIFA have also stated that no other websites or third parties are legitimately selling tickets for the tournament and all sales are managed by them. 

FIFA are entitled to void any ticket purchased via unauthorised distribution channels, including all tickets purchased through Viagogo. During the World Cup, FIFA and local Russian authorities will be conducting strict admission checks; supporters should be mindful that if the ticket details they have obtained do not match that of the FAN ID or any other forms of identification, we cannot guarantee that you will be allowed entry into the stadium. 

In light of the above, we would like to remind members that the sale or offer for sale of any World Cup tickets they have been allocated via a third party site or any other means is strictly forbidden and could constitute a criminal offence. We would also strongly discourage any Travel Club members from purchasing tickets for World Cup matches from third party sites (such as Viagogo or Ticketbis) or social media.

If you missed out on tickets during the initial application period, please keep an eye on the England Supporters Club website and emails for more information over the coming months as we may be able to acquire further tickets for England matches. For all other match tickets, FIFA will hold a further first-come-first served sale on the 13th March. 

For further information about the injunction please visit: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2018/m=1/news=fifa-obtains-preliminary-injunction-against-viagogo-2926697.html 

What to do if you have bought tickets from an unauthorised seller 

If you have bought tickets from an unauthorised seller (for the World Cup or any other football match) and you do not receive them, they are invalid or above face-value, you can do the following:

1. File a report online at http://www.actionfraud.org.uk. Ticket fraud is a criminal offence and these sorts of scams are under-reported.

2. Report the matter to Consumer Direct who should be collecting statistical information. They can also pass the information on to the Office of Fair Trading. Contact them by phone on 08454 0405 06 or online .

3. Contact your bank or credit card company; if you have paid by credit card you will be able to apply for a refund under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. If you used a debit card, you may have fraud protection on your account or be able to apply under the chargeback scheme. You should contact your bank or credit card company within 120 days of the incident occurring. We cannot guarantee that you will automatically get your money back as it will initially become a 'dispute' whilst the claim is fully investigated. 

A guide to safely buying tickets online can be found here: https://www.getsafeonline.org/shopping-banking/buying-tickets/ 

The investigation and removal of websites form the internet is a police matter and can be complicated as many of these sites are registered offshore and behind anonymous domain registry services. However, by reporting the matter you will be helping authorities close the site down and prosecute the individuals responsible. 

If you ever have any queries relating to the validity of England match tickets, you can contact ticketing@thefa.com with the details of your tickets. If you are unsure about any World Cup tickets you have purchased through third party sites, you can contact FIFA via the form here: https://support.tickets.fifa.com/en-gb/enquiry-form.aspx 

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  • For non england match tickets there will be a first come first serve sale march  13th, excuse my ignorance therefore there will be no tickets available for england v belgium if your an england supporter?

  • @ Paul Davison

    In theory, tickets for any match could be available in the 'first come, first served' sale, including England v Belgium. However, I understand that the only tickets actually available in this sales phase are those tickets which were unsold during the 'random draw' phase which ended on 31st January. In terms of England v Belgium, our allocation was sold out and I believe Belgium sold 1461 tickets, so there might be nothing in the 'first come, first served' sale. However, there's always the resale platform which opens on 18th April.

    The problem is that FIFA have the whole sales process back to front.

    1) There should be no ticket sales until qualifying is complete and the draw for groups has been made.

    2) Sales phase 1 should be for the fans of participating countries only. FIFA should satisfy demand fully, up to a limit which should be high, for example, 20% of stadium capacity per team.

    3) Sales phase 2 should be for locals and neutrals, when all remaining tickets are put on sale.

  • Agree David, but they'd never sell out a big stadium for a *** match if they did that.

    So it won't happen.

  • plus, no-one would ever host a tournament if the local population only get last dibs on the worst games, and unless you are from a country which qualifies you also would struggle to go to a world cup other than to see the rubbish games. Locals and Neutrals have to have an opportunity to buy for any game 'blind' before the draw is done.

    The trouble is the allocation for the countries involved is too small for the bigger nations as attractive world cups - the allocations in Germany 2006 vs our membership applying then was crazy. You could argue the allocations for russia are too big - we have only sold out 1 game, so now FIFA have a headache of what to do with the unsold tickets in our supposedly segregated area for England fans. Obviously at most tournaments they just sell them to anyone but that has the potential to cause problems.  

    The other issue is that whilst we might sell more tickets than most other nations, lots of the rest don't, but they need to decide on an allocation percentage for all.