Euro 2024: Thousands of Serbia v England tickets listed for resale at up to £21,000
More than two thousand tickets for England’s opening Euro 2024 match against Serbia are being listed for resale, with some sellers charging over £20,000 for a seat.
Tickets have long since sold out through official channels for England’s first game in Group C, which takes place in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Sunday evening.
That has created a grey market for resellers, some of whom are seeking £21,334, 125 times the face value of Category 1 tickets which originally cost £169.
The cheapest seats available for resale are Category 4 tickets listed for £256 – an 800 per cent mark-up on their cost.
Almost 2,500 tickets for the fixture at the Arena Aufschalke were listed for resale on several different sites just four days before the game was set to take place.
The widespread availability of tickets will increase concerns about fan safety at a fixture already deemed “high risk” by German authorities.
Unlike Uefa’s official ticket sale platform, resellers do not ensure that buyers sit in the correct area of the stadium for supporters of their team.
Police in the Ruhr valley have said that they believe 500 hooligans could be among thousands of Serbians set to attend the match.
More than 1,000 police officers will attempt to ensure that followers of England and Serbia do not mix, while only low-alcohol beer will be on sale in the stadium.
“The authorities rated that match from the start as high-risk” Andreas Schaer, the managing director of Euro 2024, told BBC Sport.
“But that was also about setting up preventative measures in Gelsenkirchen…for them to take all these actions they had to rate the match high-risk.
“Serbia’s not been in the tournament for some time so there was some unknown factors – how are the two fan groups going to react? That is an open question.
“We as organisers are not that much concerned as our records do not show that there is a high risk of clashes, but of course the match has a bit of potential, if we’re not taking care, that it could escalate.”
England also face group games against Denmark and Slovenia as they bid to win a first major international trophy in men’s football since 1966.