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Ticket rationing at Wembley EURO matches - the real culprits

Some of the rationalisations of the 3000 ticket allocation to ESTC members have been too accepting of that mean number - some explanations verge on the pompous and patronising. Putting aside references to the pandemic etc, the real explanation is to be found in UEFA's traditional arrogance - in the good old FIFA tradition - and the English FA's active or passive support. 

A 3000 allocation has been justified as a "fair" pro-rata reduction in the usual 12000 allocation. An allocation of 12000 as a share of the 85000-90000 capacity is outrageously unfair. Remember there has been no general sale to the public of tickets for the EURO matches at Wembley - we all had to be paid-up ESTC members. Where the heck were the other 75000-plus tickets allocated originally?

The balance of reduced capacity tickets i.e. about 15000 or so, after the 3000 allocated to England Fans, and 3000 to the opponent team Fans, are clearly going to UEFA, it's mates, cronies, assorted hangers-on, and the lucrative hospitality ticket holders. Most likely as a result of a cowardly deal struck by the English FA with UEFA, to get the matches "awarded" to Wembley.

This unfair allocation has to stop for future tournaments. I do not begrudge those who heard on Thursday that they have tickets - good luck to them. The ballot process was fair, given constraints resulting from the pandemic. The real issue remains the unfair original share allocated to Supporter Club members - England, and Opponents too!.

This unfairness is reflected in ticket allocation for the Men's Champions League final in Portugal. Out of 20000 available tickets, just 12000 are allocated to the two English Finalists, to be split 50;50. Leaving 80000 other tickets. A British Government Minister said this week that UEFA wanted 2000 tickets for "UEFA Delegates" - a polite term for the mates, cronies, hangers-on who fancy a jolly in sunny Portugal.

From a very disgruntled and loyal England Fan.

49 Replies

  • Oliver Pearman
    With regards to why each competing team only gets a small % of tickets to sell, it is simple economics. UEFA have to be fair to every nation, they can’t give England, Germany, Netherlands and Scotland (teams that travel in bulk) far more than France, Italy, etc. so every nation gets the same. They then need to average this number to ensure as many tickets as possible are sold.

    Remember, England only had 1500-2000 for most of our games in Russia; we had 2000 for each game in Donetsk in 2012 (although a lot more went to the Kiev games). That’s way more than some took: France’s official attendance (ie tickets bought through the FFF) in Donetsk for our game was three figures! These are all factors UEFA and FIFA will take into account when allocating tickets for tournaments. Allowing the vast majority to be taken up by the general sale ensures that there aren’t large swathes of stadiums left empty. We are only unhappy with the numbers because we are a nation that tends to travel in numbers, especially to easy-to-get-to venues.
  • Matthew Isle

    In reply to Oliver Pearman:

    Oliver Pearman
    .

    So PLEASE can we end this myth that the 50% general sale is reserved for corporate tickets, as it simply is not true

    Exactly Oli.

    On the ESTC FB, where I remarked what a great atmosphere 22k fans generated yesterday, I got exhausted trying to advise those members who seem to continually talk down the Euros by advising them that 16k of the Wembley games are NOT all corporate.

    The vast majority being general public and also England fans like you and I - albeit not ESTC members.

  • Oliver Pearman

    In reply to Matthew Isle:

    I just don’t get the thinking behind it.

    We got a similar % in Euro 2016, yet the stadiums - especially in Marseille - were packed with English. Maybe this is what has confused people? They see that three sides of the stadium are England fans and assume incorrectly that we had a greater % of tickets for those tournaments (similar in Portugal 2004) when in actual fact we got the same % but a LOT of English snapped up tickets through the UEFA sale.

    Misunderstanding is the only thing I can think of, seeing those images and thinking that this time we have been hard done by perhaps?
  • Matthew Isle

    In reply to Oliver Pearman:

    Good analogy.

    And I was one of those general public ones too in Lisboa!!!

  • Simon Ostcliffe

    In reply to Matthew Isle:

    Plenty of hospitality packages still available on the UEFA website...............
    For both semi finals & the final.
    Starting at approx £4200 per person.
    Includes a match ticket, a pie and a programme.
    :-)
  • James Collinson

    In reply to Simon Ostcliffe:

    Yeah I was having a look through those today. Very reasonable ;)
  • Christopher Banks

    In reply to Roger Loughney:

    I’m an ETSC member and bought my group games in the uefa general sale in August 2019 - we knew at that point that if England qualified, their games would be at Wembley.

    My thinking was that the more of us that get general sale tickets, the lower the caps cut off point is for the ESTC allocation.
  • Roger Clunn

    In reply to Roger Loughney:

    I'm just grateful that there are EF like David, Matt & Garford, to name but three, who try to help and advise other fans who are either less knowledgeable or like me too lazy to read the small print. Long may it continue.
  • Simon Ostcliffe

    In reply to Roger Clunn:

    In the other major ticketing thread, I jokingly mentioned the UEFA hospitality packages, so I thought I'd email them.
    Our dedicated UEFA sales rep replied overnight.
    The cheapest package for all 8 Wembley matches is €4500 (£3800) Hear me out, before people start laughing.
    This guarantees all 3 of our group games, both round of 16 games, both semis and the final, subject to progression.
    That's an average of £475 per match. Now, I reckon a lot of us would pay that for any England semi or final ticket, if it came to the crunch. I know we did in Russia, on the street.
    What are people's thoughts on this? Availability is high (unsurprisingly) & the competition starts in just over 3 weeks.
    I'm discussing it with our group of regular tournament goers. Is it realistic or a bit ridiculous?
  • Matthew Davys

    In reply to Simon Ostcliffe:

    If you can afford it and it looks like the only way to get a ticket then why wouldn't you. If we got to the final and won it that would look like a bargain
  • Peter Sherwood

    In reply to Oliver Pearman:

    My point being Oliver is that fans from fan clubs have bearly got 8K out of a 25K allowance. That doesn't sit well with me, on this occasion, UEFA could have slimmed the "other categories" down tremendously. Let them moan for once, what was to stop UEFA, giving Croatia, CZ, England & Scotland 10K each. Well you tell me, because only UEFA know why they couldn't. They've cancelled all tickets, so they could have just made a new set of rules and stated (like a lot of firms are nowadays) "because of Covid" etc etc.

    Instead 17K has been swallowed up somewhere? Who has those tickets? It's certainly not "loyal fans".
  • Christopher Banks

    In reply to Peter Sherwood:

    If they keep the pro rata allocations them 11,250 of them will be general sales, plenty of loyal fans within them.
  • David O'brien

    In reply to Paul Dawson:

    "how half the people who appear at tournaments probably need google & a team meeting to find the bog in the morning"......Paul Dawson - just spat my coffee out! You win the internet today!
  • Simon Ostcliffe

    In reply to Matthew Davys:

    Thanks Matt & Graham. I'm always open to suggestion & advice. The lady who replied to my initial email has now phoned me from Switzerland, but I wasn't free to speak at the time. She's phoning back in an hour & I will have a list of questions of my own, plus the excellent list of yours Matt. Thanks again.
    I'll update on here with as many detailed answers as possible.
    Subject to those answers, I'll be asking about a group booking discount too. If anyone else would be interested, we can speak about this afterwards. As Graham says above, prices in Germany 2006 were high and in Russia also. An average of £475 per match if we go all the way seems 'reasonable'.
    It also feels like UEFA are very keen to sell if they're phoning people directly too. Time for some good old Yorkshire haggling!
    :-)
  • Oliver Pearman

    In reply to Peter Sherwood:

    Again, thought you have ignored the previous posts that I and others have made on this matter: the proportion of available seats for everyone is the same as it would have been with a full capacity. Approximately 50% were made available for general sale / ballot directly through UEFA. That amount has not changed, just as each competing nation’s 16% (approx) has not changed.
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