A mother consoles her young son outside Anfield, wiping away tears on a cold night in bitter disappointment.
Liz O’Driscoll, who came to Merseyside from County Kerry in Ireland with her eight-year-old son Liam, was devastated to learn from Liverpool staff that the tickets she purchased for the Premier League game against Aston Villa were fake.
“We reached the scanner at the turnstiles and the light turned red instead of green, so they directed us to the ticket office,” she explained. “I got them through a contact in Ireland. He assured me they were authentic and provided instructions on how to save them to my phone’s wallet. Friends on the bus said they looked real.
“But now I’ve been informed they are fake. I’ve tried calling but his phone is off. I’m angry. This was Liam’s first Anfield trip, and he’s been looking forward to it for weeks. That’s why I’m so emotional.”
Liz O’Driscoll and her son Liam, who were the victims of a ticket-touting scam (James Pearce/The Athletic)
As kick-off approaches, more disappointed fans share similar stories of being scammed.
“I can’t believe this,” said Dylan Williams, who traveled five hours from Porthcawl, South Wales, with friends via a secondary ticketing site. “We were told it’s a scam. I’m devastated. Losing £270 per ticket is tough. These scammers should be penalized. They ruin lives.”
A steward in a fluorescent jacket nearby shook his head. “This used to be rare, but now it happens every home game,” he lamented. “It’s getting worse.”
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With Arne Slot’s Liverpool leading the Premier League and excelling in other competitions, Anfield is buzzing with excitement.
Despite the Anfield Road Stand expansion, demand for tickets far exceeds availability. Liverpool has 28,000 season ticket holders and sells 11,000 hospitality seats per game. Visiting teams receive around 3,000 tickets, with the rest allocated through membership ballots with annual fees ranging from £37 to £46.
The season ticket waiting list is closed since 2017, with some waiting over 25 years. Touts exploit the scarcity, selling genuine tickets at exorbitant prices or counterfeiting them, especially targeting international fans wanting to experience Anfield.
The redeveloped Anfield Road Stand has increased Liverpool’s capacity to over 60,000 (Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Touting has become sophisticated with the transition to digital tickets, making it easier for illicit sales to operate without physical presence at Anfield. Organised crime gangs both locally and elsewhere partake in this multi-million-pound illegal operation.
Despite facing challenges, Liverpool is fighting back. Last season alone, the club shut down nearly 100,000 fake ticketing accounts, canceled 1,500 tickets, and imposed bans and suspensions. This season, they deactivated close to 20,000 accounts, canceled 1,200 tickets, and issued bans. Liverpool has teams dedicated to tackling touting and safeguards for online and stadium behavior.
Multiple resources are now invested in data analysis to track suspicious activities efficiently. Touts engage in unconventional methods like burner phones and fraudulent ticket scanning at turnstiles, complicating the process of quantifying the extent of touting at Anfield.
Liverpool collaborates with police to seek convictions against touts under the 1994 law that bans the unauthorized sale of football tickets. Despite ongoing investigations and challenges, Liverpool remains committed to protecting fans from touts through various strategies.
One of the club’s major challenges is combating secondary ticketing sites based abroad, making it challenging to prosecute fraudulent sales. Tickets for upcoming matches with Manchester United are advertised on international platforms for exorbitant prices, exploiting unknowing fans. Liverpool continues to fight against these practices and collaborate with other clubs for information sharing.
Liverpool’s efforts have led to the prevention and detection of fraudulent activities, protecting genuine fans from falling victim to touts. The club remains vigilant in their pursuit of justice against those engaging in illegal ticket sales.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)