BBC exposed the big black market case of Premier League tickets, Chelsea boss Boli is involved

A BBC investigation revealed a black market that sells a large number of Premier League tickets.

Behind this black market, there are many overseas companies, including one located in a small town with a population of only 4,000 in Switzerland.

It is understood that these companies use membership and ticket grabbing software to grab tickets on the online ticketing platform of Premier League clubs on a large scale, and then resell the tickets they have obtained on second-hand platforms.

In the UK, reselling tickets is illegal and the Premier League has placed these websites on the "unauthorized list". Despite this, BBC reporters easily bought tickets to four Premier League games last weekend through the black market.

For example, tickets for the Manchester Derby last Sunday were sold out a few weeks ago, but the BBC reporter bought two a few days before the game. They also purchased tickets to home games for Arsenal, Everton and West Ham United.

In all four games, BBC reporters successfully entered the game using tickets purchased from the black market.

But for others who purchase tickets through these websites, they don't get into the stadium every time. Some fans said they bought tickets from the black market but were refused entry.

The price of black market tickets is usually two to four times the face value of the ticket. In addition to websites, chat software is also a channel for purchasing black market tickets. Some ticket sellers also strictly order buyers not to talk to ticket inspectors and security personnel.

BBC exposure prompted calls on clubs, Premier League and the UK government to take more measures to hit the black market for ball tickets.

People are worried that the huge attractiveness of the Premier League makes it increasingly difficult for fans to purchase tickets from official channels. The ticket black market also has an impact on the strict rules for the separation of home and visiting fans, posing a potential security threat.

In response, clubs said they are working hard to solve this problem. Tens of thousands of memberships have been cancelled, and their ticket purchase qualifications have also been cancelled.

Phenomenon: One-third of Arsenal's home tickets flow out of the black market? The list of "unauthorized" ticket sellers for the Premier League includes more than 50 platforms, including Stubhub and Vivid Seats, and Chelsea owner Todd Boley is one of the directors of Vivid Seats.

BBC focused on four platforms that are accessible in the UK and appear to have the most tickets sold from the list.

Before the last round of Premier League began, there were tens of thousands of tickets for sale on these four platforms. In the end, in the match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest on September 13 alone, more than 18,000 tickets were sold, accounting for almost one-third of the capacity of the Emirates Stadium. However, except for the tickets purchased by the BBC reporter themselves, the authenticity of other tickets sold cannot be verified. Ticketing security expert Reg Walker believes that the data published on these websites may be hydrated. "In fact, only 10% to 25% of the tickets are real."

But even if the tickets sold by these websites are only 10% of the published data, it means that thousands of tickets are out of the black market in each round of the Premier League. The black market ticket prices seen by BBC reporters range from £55 to £14,962, not only far exceeding the face value, but also the buyer has to pay a considerable reservation fee.

"A Japanese tourist spent £2,200 to buy tickets worth £87." Walker said he is a consultant to Premier League clubs and has been working in the ticketing industry for 40 years.

These platforms even sell tickets for Arsenal’s exclusive diamond members and Manchester City’s exclusive tunnel members. The

Football Supporters Association said the BBC's findings were "very worrying".

The association's president Tom Gretrex said: "This confirms the rumors we have heard... this phenomenon is spreading."

"Fans who have long supported the team found that they could not buy tickets through formal channels because the tickets were all in the hands of second-hand dealers."

The Premier League officials declined to comment on the findings, saying that ticket sales are mainly the club's responsibility, but they are reincreasing their support for the club's anti-scalper action.

BBC reporters bought electronic tickets, and one was sent to the reporter's mobile phone on the morning of the game. And it was not until this time that the reporter knew his seat number.

reporters ordered seats in an upper stand at Hill Dickinson Stadium, Everton's new home court, located behind the goal. What I actually received was a ticket close to the mid-line - a private lobby ticket for members who paid £1,200 per quarter, and a pint of beer was given along with the ticket.

A few days after the Manchester City Derby ended, an electronic ticket for the Etihad Stadium in the reporter's mobile wallet changed automatically - showing a different seat number than before, and the new seat number seemed to correspond to the Champions League match between Manchester City and Naples.

The reporter interviewed several Premier League clubs, but only two responded.

Arsenal said they have canceled nearly 74,000 accounts trying to obtain tickets in an unauthorized manner as part of a "hard crackdown on vote downs."

Everton said they have been "operating with Merseyside police to combat scalpers online and offline."

Hazard: It may cause home and away fans to sit in a mess, and there will be violence in the stands

In the UK, reselling tickets is illegal unless the club allows it - and the club allows it to prevent fans of the hostile sides from sitting in a mess and clashing in the stands.

However, the registered locations of these four companies are in Spain, Dubai, Germany and Estonia, respectively, which are beyond the jurisdiction of British law..

They not only sell tickets online, but also actively target British customers to sell tickets offline through online advertising. After the BBC reporter issued a ticket purchase application, sellers of Live Football Tickets, Seatsnet and Football Ticket Net all contacted them by phone.

Ticombo is a German-registered company that has multiple offices in Engelberg, a resort in central Switzerland, with a local population of only 4,000.

This is also the only company that responds to the BBC's findings, and they sent a statement to the BBC calling Ticombo a "trusted ticket resale platform" and stressing that "the secondary market plays an important role in promoting consumer choice and competition."

The company firmly denies any allegations of wrongful acts or possible illegal acts in the statement. The statement said that the entire ban on resale tickets was to protect consumers, but in reality, it would only give organizers a monopoly.

Ticombo even asked that if BBC reporters had a "positive experience" at the London stadium with tickets purchased on their platform, they could give them a good review online.

Gretrex, who was once a Labor MP, said: "The Premier League ticket sales system seems to have loopholes in the management of overseas institutions and needs to be reviewed from a legislative perspective."

"If the system of isolation of home and away team fans is destroyed, more and more away team fans appear in the stands of home team fans, there may be unimaginable violent incidents."

Experience: Tickets with many problems are easily released into the stadium

A few days before the start of the Manchester City Derby, there were still many tickets for this game for sale on the "unauthorized" website.

BBC reporters chose the cheapest ticket they could find, which was about three times the face value. A few days later, the reporter received an electronic ticket on his mobile phone.

This electronic ticket is accompanied by strict instructions.

The reporter was told not to talk to security personnel; he had to "enter the court one hour before the kickoff (not earlier)" and to delete tickets "for safety purposes" after the game.

What is even more suspicious is that if someone questions the ticket, the reporter was advised to lie that it was a free gift because the stadium staff "had a motivation to void the ticket."

However, despite these suspicious warnings, the reporter was scanned and released with the ticket, the ticket inspector did not make any marks or ask any questions, and the entry was surprisingly easy. The

instructions also require reporters to pay attention to the color of their clothes, especially not to wear red clothes. The reason for giving this advice was obvious. The ticket was a seat in the home area, right behind one of the goals, and the reporter sat there with Manchester City's most avid fans at the time.

Fans of some clubs are increasingly dissatisfied with the appearance of the away team fans in the home stands, and the experience of BBC reporters at the Etihad Stadium shows how destructive the second-hand ticket platform is to the principle of isolation of fans.

Supreme Question: How tickets fell into the hands of the "scalpers"

All the companies involved would not disclose what specific methods they used to obtain such a large number of tickets.

What can be guessed is that many tickets that eventually flow into the black market were obtained by scalpers using ticket grabbing software and false identities.

Walker said: "Most clubs have tens of thousands of membership cards controlled by scalpers. We found that a director of a second-hand ticket platform controls 900 memberships for Premier League clubs. It's an arms race." Data released by some Premier League clubs over the past year indicate the difficulty of regulation: Arsenal deleted 30,000 "suspicious entries" from ticket purchase applications; Chelsea blocked 350,000 "robot ticket purchase" transactions; Liverpool closed 100,000 "fake ticket accounts".

However, last season's Home Office records show that only 12 people were arrested for reselling tickets in cases involving the English Football First Six League.

Until April this year, Manal Smith served as Arsenal's ticketing director.

She said the hardest part of the job was "her the supporters showed up and were denied entry, which disappointed her."

reporters interviewed several fans who bought hundreds of pounds worth of tickets from the "unauthorized" platform but failed to see the game they were looking forward to.

Some fans rushed from Devon to Old Trafford to celebrate their 50th birthday, but the birthday trip was completely ruined.

A 79-year-old Crystal Palace fan missed the opportunity to witness his home team picking up the FA Cup at Wembley.

Smith's advice to anyone considering buying tickets from these websites is: "Don't do this! Don't do this!"