Liverpool are preparing for the new season by making some changes to the way in which tickets are transferred between supporters.
As reported by the club, the following changes have been implemented to the ticketing process for the upcoming campaign:
- LFC’s Ticket Forwarding scheme rolled out for new season
- Friends and Family update as part of new Ticket Forwarding scheme – fans can register unlimited number of friends and family to their supporter ID account
- Tickets for a game can be forwarded a maximum of three times per game before they are locked and cannot be forwarded again
- Fans encouraged to use club’s official Ticket Exchange if they or registered friends and family cannot attend a game
- Tickets purchased in the local members sale, late availability sales or general £9 sale will be non-transferable
This has been a clear attempt to clamp down on touts, with the revelation that: ‘During the 2021-22 season, on average 53 per cent of Official Member tickets available were transferred every game. Approximately 81 per cent of tickets purchased in late availability sales, including local members sales, and £9 local general sales tickets were transferred every game’.
Just because supporters are transferring tickets between each other though, doesn’t mean that these are indeed being sold on to other people for a profit and so there will be some innocent parties affected by this.
As part of the new rules, if any supporter transfers their ticket to another fan – they will then lose their credit for attending that match.
This will not be a major issue for any fans who can’t attend because of an emergency (or for any other reason) for the odd game in the campaign but it will affect those who attempt to sell tickets on for a profit.
However, due to the large amount of money made by selling tickets on, it may become a new tactic for these touts to just hand out phones with the tickets pre-loaded onto them and then they won’t lose their credit for the match, as they won’t be using the club’s ticket exchange programme.
It’s alarming to hear that 81% of the local members tickets are being passed on to others, especially after the call from local fans to be given access to more tickets.
Supporters should only gain a credit if it is them who use their ticket to the match and that will be a way of stopping the resale and profiteering made off the back of match tickets.
One method could be to introduce photo ID checks in order to enter the stadium but given the huge delays with entrances last year, this will only add more time and frustration.
This new strategy could prove to be a good method in the but will also affect a lot of innocent people in the long run, many of whom had benefited from the scheme.