FIFA warns over World Cup tickets from secondary ticketing websites caught selling 40 times more, saying FIFA won’t accept them.

In a recent report, World Cup 2018 tickets are being sold for as much as £5,618.80 in secondary and unofficial ticketing websites. These websites do not even guarantee seats according to group Which? in their investigation.

The said investigation group and consumer website discovered that five secondary ticketing websites have been listing FIFA World Cup tickets for sale in the United Kingdom. FIFA stressed that official tickets for the World Cup in Russia are legitimately sold only in FIFA.com – directly to football fans.

This also specifies that no other websites have the right to sell tickets for the international football event.

The investigative group found two tickets for category 1 best available seat for a match between Tunisia and England on June 18, listed on sale from £480.20 to a whopping £11,237.60. The amount is a 3792% increase on actual ticket cost, which is originally priced at $420 (£296.35) on FIFA.com.

The tickets mentioned were found on these websites: Primesport, Sports Events 365, StubHub, Ticketbis, and Ticombo. According to StubHub, “tickets were briefly listed due to a technical error”.

“StubHub fully complies with applicable laws; therefore, we do not allow the resale of World Cup tickets on Stubhub.co.uk. Unfortunately, World Cup tickets were, due to a technical error, viewable from (but not purchasable on) our UK site for a limited period but this was promptly fixed. There are currently no tickets available for the World Cup on our UK site,” StubHub added.

FIFA and Which? have both warned fans that buying tickets from unofficial sites will not only result to overpayment, but to risk not being able to get admitted into stadiums and arenas. FIFA pointed out that they have the right to void tickets purchased over unauthorized websites and unofficial distribution channels. Officials will also be on high alert as strict admission checks in Russia will be implemented.

Not only will tickets be required, but access to Russian arenas will also entail presentation of a Fan ID.

Alex Neill of Which? advised, “If you don’t want to risk watching the World Cup from the sidelines, you should only buy from the official FIFA reselling website.”