Posted on 11th April 2025
FSA response to Government consultation on secondary ticketing agencies
The Government is consulting on “proposals to strengthen consumer protections in relation to ticket resales”. Given the recent controversies involving secondary ticketing agencies at Chelsea and Manchester City, as well as the dangers posed by “surge pricing”, we submitted an official response.
It is a subject we have already addressed in Parliament. Read our submission below…
Football Supporters’ Association response to: “Putting fans first: consultation on the resale of live events tickets”
Dynamic / surge pricing
The issue of surge pricing came to wider public attention following the reformation of Oasis and the subsequent outcry over ticket pricing and policy, and many football supporters aired their fears that football would follow that model.
In response to media queries on this subject in September 2024 we said that supporters would “never underestimate the potential for the most greedy owners in football to try and import terrible ideas from other industries to exploit supporter loyalty.”
By December 2024 FIFA president Gianluigi Infantino had introduced dynamic pricing for their upcoming Club World Cup with a standard final ticket being priced at $2230.
Chelsea and Manchester City fans will face these prices while many English clubs are now globally-recognised brands with owners from all over the world. There is a very real fear that these pricing models will be introduced to our domestic game.
Coincidentally those two clubs have also been in the news for ticketing decisions which are deeply unpopular with their own supporters.
Manchester City’s decision to “welcome Viagogo to the family” has been met by a great deal of opposition, while Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly has been named as a director of Vivid Seats – a company who appears on the Premier League’s own list of “unauthorised ticket sellers”. Chelsea Supporters’ Trust called on the Premier League to investigate.
It would be illegal to use Vivid Seats to buy or sell football tickets in the UK – so not only could Vivid Seats (director: Todd Boehly) sell you a match ticket for Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea (chairman: Todd Boehly) could also ban you from the ground for trying to use it.
Football’s relationship with secondary ticketing platforms is in serious need of review.
In February 2025 FSA chair Tom Greatrex told the Business and Trade Committee that we often see the exploitation of supporter loyalty in football and it is very difficult to compare football to other sectors such as the music or theatre industry.
Clubs are direct monopoly suppliers to their supporter base as matchgoers do not switch teams giving the top clubs the opportunity to drive up prices. It is also illegal to resell match tickets, unless it is via a club’s licensed platform, so there is no free market of ticket sales.
While gig tickets can be very expensive they are also a one-off cost – even the most ardent Oasis fan is unlikely to pay to watch them live 20+ times per year as a season ticket holder is likely to do with their team.
Football’s ticket price rises
Nineteen out of 20 top-flight clubs increased prices last season while, since the 2019-20 “COVID” season, the Premier League’s own statistics show that ticket prices have risen by 19%. Since the Premier League was formed a ticket on the Kop has increased by 875%.
It is also worth noting that matchday revenue is a relatively small percentage of a top-flight club’s overall revenue, often around 10%, as the vast majority of Premier League club income comes from broadcast revenue and prize monies.
The recent price rises we have seen in the Premier League, which squeezed supporters and have led to months of matchday protest, are estimated to raise between £1m-3m for the clubs involved.
For comparison Premier League clubs spent £409m on agents in the 12 months to 1st February 2024. Spurs fans’ groups have pointed out that the £3m raised by increasing ticket prices just about covers chairman Daniel Levy’s £3.6m bonus.
We believe that top-flight football has a spending problem, not an income problem.
There is a clear pattern at the very top of the game where concessionary offers to the youngest and oldest supporters are being stripped back, with many clubs seeking to attract one-off tourist visitors rather than finding an affordable price point for loyal season ticket holders or local supporters.
The longer term consequences to the culture and heritage of our clubs could be catastrophic. What was once a family tradition has become increasingly unaffordable to the communities surrounding some of our most famous clubs.
Football is a complex landscape and the picture in the EFL and National League is more mixed around home pricing with some very good and some very bad examples on offer – but we still support an away ticket cap at all levels of the game.
The Premier League currently caps away tickets at £30 in recognition of the disproportionately positive impact of away fans.
The FSA’s Premier League Network – made up of supporter groups from across the country – wrote to the Premier League with three main requests earlier this year:
- For all clubs to agree a price freeze on all ticket prices for the 2025-26 season;
- To support our call for the protection of concessionary tickets and to work with the FSA on reviewing the rules and guidance on ticketing in the Premier League Handbook;
- To support our calls for urgent, meaningful dialogue between clubs and their supporter representatives on ticketing, with the utmost transparency given to representatives of FABs.
Ticket cap
The Government’s consultation asks, “What is the maximum uplift that you think should be applied if ticket resales were to be subject to a price cap?”.
We do not think any “uplift” is acceptable in football.
Clubs should only be allowed to resell tickets at face value and supporters should receive that refund in full once the club sells a ticket on. There is nothing preventing clubs from selling tickets directly to supporters at face value and/or running their own in-house schemes (in those circumstances engaging an external company to run the platform is accepted).
Given supporters are expected to purchase tickets for games well in advance, and many of these will be moved at short notice, it seems a reasonable expectation for clubs to run such services.
But any third party company which inserts itself between a club and its fans with the objective of driving up prices and taking a cut from sales is not wanted by matchgoing supporters, whether they are licensed by the club (and therefore legal) or unlicensed (and illegal).
Football is a unique landscape, as empty stadiums during COVID showed that crowds are a critical feature of the game’s spectacle.
Domestic clubs trade on the name of communities that have followed that club for decades and decades and we believe clubs owe a debt to ensure football is affordable for those communities. Dynamic pricing and third party ticketing agencies acting as legalised touts are not in keeping with that ethos.
We look forward to seeing the Government’s proposals and would be eager to participate in any future discussions around dynamic/surge pricing and secondary ticketing agencies.
