The Asociación Nacional de Ticketing (Anatic), a trade organisation for the secondary ticketing market in Spain, has hit out at “unethical” behaviour by some operators ahead of the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid tomorrow (Saturday).
According to Europa Press, Anatic said that it had become aware of “counterfeiting, fraud and over-selling” of tickets via social networks, free ad pages and other platforms in the build-up to the game.
Around 30,000 fans are reported to have travelled from England without tickets for the match, which will see Liverpool take on Premier League rival Tottenham Hotspur at the 68,000-seat Wanda Metropolitano (pictured), the home of LaLiga football club Atlético Madrid.
Both Liverpool and Tottenham have been allocated about 16,000 tickets each, but scalpers in and around the stadium have reportedly been rife.
Tottenham has already handed out lifetime bans to three individuals who tried to sell their tickets online, but earlier today (Friday) Spanish police revealed that six people had been arrested in Madrid in relation to an investigation into counterfeiting.
Yesterday, three individuals were arrested yards away from the official box office. When they were apprehended, they had 21 false tickets in their possession and more than €3,000 in cash, according to reports.
Speaking more generally about the sector, Anatic president María Requena lamented the “deregulation” of secondary ticketing as having led to “some international platforms losing control of sales”. Requena added that the fraudsters are difficult to identify as many advertise through platforms that do not offer guarantees or require authentication.
Anatic, which was founded early last year, also reiterated the need for a national register for secondary ticketing operators and greater regulation of the sector to counter “negative public opinions”.
Image: Fernandopascullo
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