Football is for the fans, without them, as football has found out it is nothing, and if anything has come out of the pandemic over fifteen months that is it. No fans, no football. It’s a dead game. We have spent three days looking at the Wembley allocation, the tickets we know the fans can get, but there is another issue. The extra tickets that are available, that nobody knew about. Including officially allocated tickets to both finalists that are being sold for hundreds more than their face value. And seemingly in abundance.
We are pointing the blame at nobody just yet, let’s get that straight for starters. We don’t blame Swansea City FC, we are told they knew nothing of this news. This club has repaid swans fans with free entry to last Saturdays game, it was unexpected and gratefully received by those who won the ballot. That in itself tells us that they would never scam the lifeblood who attend the Liberty. In relation to the ballot, not everybody was happy, but then as we have reported before sometimes there are always losers.
There are other losers too.
Now we all know that hospitality at Wembley has always been available, as it is for Saturdays game, a grand gets you a seat in the stadium, drinks, food and services etc. However this Wembley allocation is sold out. This has either been done by Wembley selling what we consider overpriced packages to desperate fans without tickets, or Wembley seat holders selling on their tickets to hospitality companies for profit. So why, if football is the fans game could Wembley just not sell on their packages for this weekends games, just this once ? If football is the fans game and it cannot breath without them why were Swansea fans denied extra tickets ( approx 2000 plus for both teams ) Hospitality packages via Wembley are expensive enough, and this years Championship play off final is sold out.
But that’s only half the story.
There are outlets selling single and double tickets for £500 plus, apparently this is a criminal offence but it was happening yesterday and it is happening today. Live football tickets are able this afternoon to sell you whatever you want, for a price of course, and we don’t mean just hospitality, somehow they have secured tickets for both ends of the ground as well. So for ten times the price you too can take a seat at the biggest game of the season. Why is this allowed, and don’t just say oh that always happens, this is far different. These are different times.
Everybody has a price, Everybody except the average person
These tickets are a part of the normal allocation process, they are being sold at inflated prices at a time when once - why couldn’t Wembley and their cohorts at the EFL just think straight. This practice they both could have stopped, but they chose not to. We have contacted the EFL and Wembley today and their switchboard denied us access for comment. Not surprising, but of course the attitude is par for the course.
Whilst football fans are denied a proper allocation in the first place why is it that 21% of available tickets are "not available” and in the pursuit of financial gain supporters have to pay up and shut up. Well, we won’t shut up.
The hospitality centre based in the UK are open to selling you tickets in multiples of two up to whatever they can get for a starting price of a grand a piece. Then they offer diamond hospitality and private boxes too. Thousands of pounds available ? No problem, when we spoke to them they offered to get us whatever they could to fulfil the Wembley dream. Both the hospitality centre and Live football tickets state they are endorsed by the EFL, Sky bet and Wembley. They have company logos all over their products for these companies. If that’s the case then Sky Bet, EFL and Wembley know all about these people, and there are countless other businesses "touting” for your money.
Is this why we had no response today from the official governing bodies and not even someone saying " Give us the information” We got nothing. And that’s what you are getting, Swansea City fans, unless of course you want to join the queue, pay your thousands and not care where those tickets came from. So, where do they come from ? Some of these sales are from the allocation from both clubs on Saturday, these are questions that need answering. Swans fans have missed out.
Football for the fans eh ? Yeah, right.
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