Euro 2016 tickets: Football fans warned over 1.8m tickets being sold through unofficial channels

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James Benge10 June 2016

Thousands of football fans could be at risk of having their dreams of watching Euro 2016 games in France ruined if they have purchased one of the 1.8million tickets sold through an unofficial channel, according to research by brand protection firm NetNames.

Around 500,000 British supporters will make the journey to France for the European Championships, in which England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will be among the 24 teams taking part in the tournament.

However thousands could be left disappointed if they purchased their tickets from unofficial outlets, with NetNames noting a proliferation of websites scamming consumers and selling fake tickets at prices of up to £10,000.

And with nearly 2m tickets for the tournament being sold through unofficial channels there is a serious risk that supporters could be ripped off.

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Gary McIlraith, CEO of Netnames, said: “A simple search for the term: ‘Euro 2016 tickets’ on Google provides more than 11 million results. Among these search results, NetNames’ research uncovered thousands of unofficial ticket listings, with prices reaching over £10,000.

“Some organisations with no official link to UEFA or the organising committee state that they can ‘provide authentic tickets for all games or ‘guarantee best tickets’.

“Buying an online ticket for the UEFA Euro 2016 Championship this summer is a dangerous game. Tickets to the event have only been made officially available via the UEFA EURO portal, which suggests any resellers selling tickets are doing so unofficially, and they may therefore be counterfeit.”

Earlier this week it was reported that a single mother in Ireland had been left over £300 out of pocket after purchasing tickets for her country’s group game against Belgium but had been the victim of a scam.

She told the Irish Daily Mirror: “In March I found europeanchampionships.com, I spoke to them on the phone, there was emails going back and forth and I ended up paying for the tickets over the phone with my visa debit card.

“They emailed me last week to say the tickets would be with me before June 6.

“Now it’s transpired that the website has disappeared, my emails go undelivered, when I ring them it says their message box is full and the website domain name is up for sale.”

Police in France have warned those travelling to France with the intention of buying tickets at the last minute could find themselves victims of fraudsters posing as official sellers.

Around a quarter-of-a-million British football fans are expected to travel to France without tickets for the Championships.

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