Tickets for Liverpool’s likely coronation as Premier League champions when they face Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday are being listed by touts online for more than £3,000 ($4,000) each.
It could be the first time the Merseyside club have clinched the title in front of supporters since 1990 with Arne Slot’s side needing just a point to be guaranteed top spot.
Demand for seats has rocketed in recent days with secondary ticketing sites offering them at exorbitant prices. Madrid-based site LiveFootballTickets is selling tickets in the Main Stand with a face vale of £61 at a top price of £3,248.70. The site is also offering £30 tickets in the away end from £414.70 upwards.
The game is a 60,500 sell-out with Liverpool urging supporters not to buy tickets from unofficial sources which could be fake or cloned.
The Athletic revealed in a special investigation in January how Liverpool were hitting back in the war against touts after a sharp rise in the number of fans being ripped off.
Liverpool’s data shows that international supporters, many of whom are trying to visit Anfield for the first time, are particularly targeted. Touting operations have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, involving organised crime gangs both on Merseyside and further afield.
Last July and in November the club’s online ticket sales for members were subjected to sustained cyber attacks which were designed to illegally harvest tickets.
The club shut down close to 100,000 fake ticketing accounts following suspicious online activity last season. They also cancelled 1,500 tickets, issued 47 lifetime bans from Anfield and 136 indefinite suspensions.
Liverpool have 28,000 season ticket holders and a further 11,000 tickets per game are hospitality seats. Visiting teams receive around 3,000 tickets, with the rest sold to members (who pay an annual fee of between £37 and £46) via a ballot. The season ticket waiting list has been closed since 2017.
Slot’s side are 12 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with a game in hand. When Liverpool last won the title under Jurgen Klopp in 2019-20, fans were not allowed inside Anfield due to the global pandemic.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)