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7 Ticket Rule

This is the rule that a fan cannot have a ticket to more than 7 matches. FIFA have had this rule for World Cups but I wasn't aware of such a rule for UEFA Euro championships.

There is no 7 ticket rule mentioned in the Euro 2020 ticketing T&Cs for the general public sale. Nor is it in the Euro 2016 ticketing T&Cs for fans of participating teams. These documents do set out the other ticketing restrictions. I haven't yet seen any Euro 2020 T&Cs for the fans of participating teams.

If this is a new rule, then it is a disgrace that it was not publicised before the general public sale. Evidently, UEFA think there are only 2 types of football fan. There are the fans of a particular team who won't be interested in watching anybody else. And there are casual fans who will go to their local venue and don't give a flying **** who is playing so long as they can take loads of selfies and do the Mexican wave. They don't seem to be aware of the fans who will support their own team but are also interested to go to other matches as a neutral.

The Euro 2020 ticketing FAQs are currently offline. They are being rewritten with specific sections for each qualified team. When they're back up, I will be looking for confirmation of this 7 ticket rule.

At the very least, they ought to allow fans to apply for up to 7 tickets to see their own team and, if successful, be allowed to give up tickets from the general public sale for a full refund. We might need to ask the FA to intercede with UEFA on our behalf.

26 Replies

  • Christopher Johnson
    I’m upset with this news as well David. If the seven game rule was mentioned at the start of the general public sale then I wouldn’t have applied for two further games not involving England. England games are priority but I’m a football fan so seeing a game as a neutral at grounds I’ve never been still ticks all the boxes.
  • Ian Costain
    Absolutely, David, clarification is required. As you say there is no mention in the Euro2020 T&Cs which were the basis on which people made decisions in applying in July in the general public sale. The rules were 4 tickets per game and only one game per day. And, as a result, many of us therefore avoided any dates at all when there could potentially be an England game.

    I'm hopeful (ever the optimist!) that the intention is not to preclude people from also getting tickets for non-England games (provided they don't take place on the same day as a potential England game). And that the intention is to stop people applying through the Travel Club for a potential England game that they were already successful in applying for in the earlier public sale.

    I accept that if in the public sale you got tickets for, say, one of the Semi-Finals then you can't then apply for an "England SF" ticket through the Travel Club. I saw someone miffed on social media that they'd got SF2 in the public sale and therefore now wouldn't be able to apply for an England SF ticket through the Travel Club. They realised they could miss out if England ended up being in SF1. I have only a limited amount of sympathy here because UEFA are never going to allow a situation where an individual can effectively obtain 2 tickets for the same game.
  • Oliver Pearman
    It’s very frustrating to see this mentioned in the FA’s post. I made a point of looking through all the rules before applying in the public sale, and since nothing about a ‘7 game rule’ (or any limit on amount of games you can be allocated tickets for) was present, and knowing I’m good for all (up to) 7 tickets through the FA, I applied for and was allocated a ticket to the second group game in Baku (which is at least two days from the nearest England game).

    Now this rule supposedly exists and I am faced with potentially having to miss one of England’s matches - on the off-chance we actually get to the final. Very frustrating indeed.
  • Paddy Buckley
    This doesn’t affect me but I totally agree with you David, I think this is one of the best posts I’ve seen on here. They changing the rules midway through and they will change them again if it suits, can you imagine them having big empty spaces at Wembley knockout games if some of the big countries get knocked out before and saying sorry you can’t have a ticket you’ve had your quota, they will sell to anyone as many as they want like in the nations league when you could go to two games in a day after telling everyone that it wasn’t allowed. The public sale has gone now, anyone who wanted tickets had the chance to apply back then and as no 7 game rule was stated back then how can they now bring it in now.
  • Will Arnold
    Thankfully not affected either, but a disgrace if this does end up being the case.

    Your final suggestion of giving up tickets from the general sale still wouldn't be a satisfactory outcome, but it is the bare minimum that should happen.
  • Kerry Gillen

    In reply to Oliver Pearman:

    I too was meticulous in checking the rules for tickets limits and ensured that I did not purchase any tickets that clashed with any England games no matter which path they took.

    While I am not as capped as yourself I felt very confident of getting all 7 of England games if they went all the way especially now seeing the allocations. I purposely did not not apply in the public ballot for any England games such was my confidence.

    I managed to get 5 tickets for various games in various countries and now find that this could mean that I have to miss 5 of the potential 7 England games.

    This is not right. Its like parking your car in a vacant space only to find yellow lines painted around it and a ticket on the windscreen when you get back. You can't change the rules half way through.
  • David Gorton

    In reply to Kerry Gillen:

    I applied for 13 tickets in the UEFA ballot and at no point did I get a message stating there was a limit.
  • Kerry Gillen

    In reply to David Gorton:

    That gives me hope then David. I applied for 7 and got just the one in the ballot but picked up another 4 in the Fans first programme.
  • David Lilley

    In reply to Kerry Gillen:

    I keep checking the interwebby thing to see whether UEFA have issued the ticketing T&Cs for fans of the participating national associations. When they are published, I will be looking for any 7 ticket rule and, if it exists, reading it carefully. We know there was no such rule in the ticketing T&Cs for the general public sale. It would be completely inequitable if applicants in the general public sale could buy tickets to any number of matches but, the moment they buy in the fans' sale, a limit suddenly kicks in.

    Remember the Nations League ? It was completely beyond the comprehension of UEFA that fans who had declared their allegiance to England might also want to buy tickets to Portugal v Switzerland. I wonder whether UEFA haven't learned from this and they believe that fans applying in December through the dedicated England ticket portal will only have bought tickets for England matches in the general public sale. It would be completely reasonable to limit us to 7 tickets for England matches, i.e. no actual or potential duplicates, as this would be enough to follow the team through every round.

    If there remains any ambiguity over what UEFA mean, then someone needs to send an email to ESTC asking them to get clarification on our behalf. If there genuinely is a 7 ticket limit over all matches then the request to ESTC would be to lodge a strong protest that you can't introduce a new rule after people have already acted in good faith and unaware that such a rule would be introduced.
  • Ken Foster

    In reply to David Lilley:

    I've just emailed ESTC and asked then to take this up with UEFA, I've said that it is unfair in the extreme and may even be illegal

    Personally I've got tickets for 2 non-England matches plus I was lucky enough to get the final. But I still need to apply for 6 England matches and UEFA simply cannot be allowed to act like this

    No point any of us complaining to UEFA, of course, but hopefully ESTC have more clout and will get something done
  • Penelope Mackin

    In reply to Ken Foster:

    Which ESTC email address did you use Ken? I want to put my views to them too.

    This 7 game rule if true will affect many ESTC members who as well as being devout England supporters also have a love of the game in general. The numbers that went to all 4 of the Nations League final games proves that.
  • Ken Foster

    In reply to Penelope Mackin:

    I emailed to “englandsupportersclub@thefa.com”, that email address has worked in the past when I've sent queries to ESTC
  • Brian Crofts
    I have contacted UEFA regarding this situation and they replied very quickly. Interestingly they say there is no 7 ticket rule and they have not said there is. They suggest taking up the matter with the FA. It is beginning to look like the FA message was clumsily worded and that they really meant to say we could only apply for a maximum of 7 tickets in their sale, which is obvious because that’s the maximum number of games. Perhaps We could be given some clarification on here.
  • James Clarke
    Well said everyone. I agree with everything posted above. I researched meticulously before the public ballot and worked out which games I could apply for without damaging my chances of getting England tickets - applying for matches every day of the group stage except for days in which England are playing, and the final (couldn’t risk any of the knockout games as England could have ended up playing on any day). As it happens I got precisely nothing, so I’m not directly affected by this issue (although I would have tried in the next ballot) but if my application had been successful I’d not be screwed.

    The FA simply have to take this matter up with UEFA if they haven’t already. I will email them too.
  • James Clarke
    PS I also saw on Facebook there’s a ‘consecutive day’ rule. Was anyone aware of this? It’s a daft rule (are UEFA aware of aeroplanes?!) but it’s UEFA’s prerogative to make stupid rules if they so wish. More importantly, it’s completely unacceptable if this rule has been added since the public ballot.
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