Manchester United have come under fire for claiming to be cracking down on ticket touts while allowing seats at Old Trafford to be sold through Viagogo, a website accused of allowing professional ticket traders to exploit fans.
The club this week urged any fans who had bought tickets through touts to provide details of the purchase anonymously, to assist with efforts to tackle the problem. But the Guardian found that dozens of hospitality seats at Old Trafford are on sale on Viagogo, often with huge mark-ups applied, prompting concern from a football supporters’ group.
Ticketing experts warned the club that it could not claim to be opposing touts while allowing Viagogo to sell tickets. One listing, for a game against Manchester City, offered a hospitality package, including seat, for £1,514, more than three times its €550 face value. Another, for United’s game against Tottenham, was on offer for £1,000, twice the original price.
Both listings were posted by a company called Matchday VIP Ltd. Another business, Circle Hospitality Ltd, had multiple listings for hospitality packages at Old Trafford, albeit at smaller mark-ups. The firms are authorised by the club to resell hospitality packages, which they buy in bulk. United do not specify these resale firms cannot list the tickets on Viagogo, where sellers can set any price they want.
Inflated prices and criticism of its consumer practices have made Viagogo the most controversial of the “secondary” ticketing websites, where the majority of listings are posted by professional touts.
A spokesperson for Circle Hospitality said the company always listed hospitality packages for a price close to face value, with any extra accounted for by Viagogo’s commission. “I do appreciate the horrors of the touting market,” he said. “We only list on Viagogo because the club give us permission to do so.”
A spokesperson for United said the club’s anti-touting efforts were focused on general admission tickets, rather than hospitality deals, which often include food, drink and entertainment, as well as a seat. “Hospitality packages are sold directly by the club and via authorised third-party agencies and these may sometimes be sold via platforms such as Viagogo,” they said.
The Football Supporters’ Association said it is “opposed to exploitative secondary ticketing sites selling match-day tickets for vastly inflated sums. Clubs should not enter into partnerships with sites that rip off fans and undermine messaging on ticket touting.
“We’ve long argued that clubs should pursue ethical and consumer-friendly alternatives such as in-house ticket exchanges where fans can easily swap tickets at face value. Tickets should go to the right fan – not the one who bids the most.”
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In 2018, the Guardian filmed undercover footage of touts who appeared to have obtained hundreds of matchday tickets and were selling them through sites including Viagogo.
Ticketing experts questioned United’s efforts to stamp out touts, given Viagogo’s well-documented links to traders who make a living hoovering up hundreds of tickets a year, to sporting events and gigs, before selling them. Reg Walker, a ticketing and security expert, said: “I am deeply disappointed that football clubs are allowing websites like Viagogo, who are dependent on touts, access to their tickets.”
He pointed out that a report by the Competition and Markets Authority, published in 2020, found that more than 70% of tickets sold through Viagogo came from professional traders, “the very ticket touts that football clubs claim to be taking action against”.
Adam Webb, of the ticketing campaign group FanFair Alliance, said: “It is hugely concerning that Viagogo, a website wholly dependent on large-scale ticket touts, is being allowed to exploit fans in this way.”
It is illegal in England to resell a ticket for a football match, unless specifically authorised to do so by the club.
Viagogo said that it did not have a commercial arrangement with United but that it was not technically reselling matchday tickets, merely providing a platform for authorised companies to do so. It said it only allowed authorised resellers on its platform and that it was a safe and secure source of tickets. “This is perfectly legal and in compliance with UK law,” a spokesperson said.
The Guardian has approached Matchday VIP Ltd for comment.