Euro touts flout the law

Supporters may find their Euro 2000 tickets are invalid

By the BBC's consumer affairs correspondent Karen Bowerman

Since a new law was introduced last September, it's now illegal for people to sell Euro 2000 tickets above their face value.

But it seems touts aren't bothered.

In the run up to the tournament hundreds of companies are advertising tickets in papers and on the internet.

Some are charging up to £600 pounds for around £40 tickets, but fans, desperate to watch their teams compete, are buying them. It's thought in Hollywood, some tickets have sold for as much as £1,000.

The Football Supporters' Association fears the way tickets were initially sold almost helped the black market to flourish.

That's because Euro 2000 officials offered tickets for sale, before the draw for the tournament was even made.

Inflated prices

It meant millions of supporters ended up with tickets for games they didn't necessarily want to see. It was a perfect situation for touts.

They bought up the tickets, and offered them for sale again, at inflated prices.

It means many England fans who've paid over the odds to get to see a match, may now have tickets with someone else's name on.

Authorities in Belgium and Holland have threatened to turn away such supporters at the grounds.

But touts claim it will be impossible for officials to check every ticket against people's passports.

Tickets for matches are allocated like this:

• 32% go to supporters of the teams that are playing
• 31% go to sponsors VIPS and the media
• 37% for so-called neutral fans

Virtually all these were sold before anyone knew which teams would be playing against each other.

Caught in the web

But trading standard officials say clamping down on touts is difficult, especially when hundreds of them operate online.

In many cases, it seems, companies advertise on the web, but operate outside the UK - shrewdly escaping our jurisdiction.

It seems Euro 2000 officials are secretly worried that the increasing black market could lead to the kind of ticket chaos and security headaches seen at World Cup 98, when the French announced an allocation of tickets which many countries believed was unfair.

It meant thousands of England fans ended up buying from black marketeers - and found themselves sitting in areas not reserved for them.

This in turn, made a mockery of segregation arrangements.