Football is famously England’s much loved national sport, with the Football Association drawing up the first set of official rules for the sport in 1863. From that point, prestigious football clubs then began to spring up and form all around the country, many of which are still going strong as professional teams today. Some of the oldest clubs include Notts County, Stoke City, Nottingham Forest, and Sheffield Wednesday to name a few.
The sport has a long illustrious history in the UK, and is recognised worldwide for its passionate, dedicated fans, and its electrifying atmosphere in matchdays. So, when visiting London, what better way to soak in some authentic English culture than securing a ticket to go and see a footy game?
Sadly, there are many ticket touts and online ticket scammers always try and take advantage of enthusiast tourists who are intent on seeing a live match. Here are a few steps which can help you avoid scammers.
Stay Wary of Ticket Touts Outside Stadiums
London is currently home to six Premier League clubs, seven if you include Watford FC. This includes hugely prestigious sides with a history of major accolades such as Chelsea and Arsenal FC. Chelsea recently winning the UEFA Champions League in May 2021. But dotted around stadiums on matchdays, there’s regularly a great deal of ticket touts specialising in the sale of shady counterfeit tickets which do not work when you try later putting them through the turnstiles.
Unfortunately, selling football tickets is an industry within itself and ticket touts understand just how much some tourists visiting London want to see a game and take advantage. Not only do ticket touts often sell fake tickets illegally which don’t gain fans entry when they try putting the botched QR code through the scanner at the gate, touts often sell tickets at terribly inflated prices to tourists.
Online Scammers
These days there is also a wide web online of unofficial sellers offering counterfeit and overpriced tickets.
Many football matches in London, especially for the bigger more popular clubs are sell out fast, therefore there are lots of scam websites which pop up reselling tickets. In the worst case, online ticket scams can mean that the tickets simply are not delivered, or they are fake. Check with the event organiser and on the official check site to checkhow and when tickets are being distributed.
Make Sure You Get Your Hands on Real Legit Football Tickets
So, to save yourself the hassle and wasting time and money on fraudulent tickets be sure that you buy genuine ones from the club’s official resellers. P1 travel is the only official reseller of West Ham tickets and offers standard tickets and hospitality packages to games. Visiting West Ham’s London Stadium is a fantastic way to soak in London’s historic East End district.
How to Look at a Ticket Bought Online and Tell That it’s Fake
There are various ways you can spot that a football ticket you’re being sold online is not genuine. These include checking closely to look at the bar code, serial number, or QR code of the ticket, and obvious incorrect language, typos/grammatical errors visible on the e-ticket.
With paper tickets, you should also look for other things such as holograms that the official tickets use which are impossible to replicate.
