CST Ticket Touting Update – Chelsea Supporters’ Trust

Again in January 2025 Chelsea Supporters Belief (CST) did an replace on ticket touting and the secondary ticketing market and requested Chelsea supporters if that they had any examples the place they knew or suspected  a seat had been offered through ticket change that had ended up on the secondary market or they knew of a Chelsea supporter that had bought a ticket by a secondary market to ship it to [email protected] to analyze however copy in [email protected] as properly so we are able to see the problems they’re dealing with.

Since January we’ve got been offered by CST members with various examples of suspected touted tickets and we’ve got forwarded them to Chelsea FC and ask them to analyze every instance. We have now just lately been up to date by Chelsea’s tout investigation staff and apart from some excellent investigations, all of the examples we offered to the membership they’ve confirmed that every one the tickets we shared with them had been all touted.

Chelsea FC like all Premier Golf equipment have a tout investigation staff (who get outcomes, do ticket checks on match days, cancel accounts and ban individuals) who’ve carried out the investigations into the examples we’ve got shared with them.

In almost each instance the supporter in query had shared with us a photograph of the ticket from the purchaser’s cellphone who had been fairly comfortable to share the knowledge and the way a lot that they had paid for the tickets. A lot of the tickets had been initially offered by an unsuspecting Chelsea ST holder through the ticket change and the vast majority of tickets had then been offered by livefootballtickets.internet.

We have now now been suggested by Chelsea that from the Premier League video games final season we offered examples of probably touted tickets that their investigations have revealed 150 memberships have now been cancelled, these accounts had been then linked to a different 300+ membership accounts by family and friends and so they too have been cancelled and sanctions additionally issued in opposition to a Chelsea season ticket holder and a Membership Chelsea account holder.

Due to these Chelsea supporters who offered data. We nonetheless have additional examples of touting being investigated by the membership that we’re ready suggestions on. If any CST members have despatched in any touting examples individually to Chelsea and haven’t but heard again or obtained an acknowledgement from the membership let the CST know and we are going to comply with this up for you.

Chelsea FC have carried out a brand new ticket promoting system for 2025/26 through Ticketmaster and so they see this modification as supporting them of their efforts to deal with ticket touting. It’s too early to see what the impression shall be on tackling touting with digital ticketing however at CST we shall be observing intently to see if tickets are going to actual followers.

The introduction of digital ticketing has not stopped the touts although with  livefootballtickets.internet already having over 1000 tickets listed for the friendlies in opposition to Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan and over 2000 tickets listed for Crystal Palace. We admire there shall be speculative and non-existent tickets amongst these listed however equally we’re positive that the tout gangs and bot gangs shall be taking a look at each avenue doable to remain one step forward of Chelsea and can have sourced precise tickets and should have bought 100s of £15 ticket switch memberships to facilitate this after which spreading their ticket transfers throughout many 1000s of memberships to attempt to keep one step forward of the membership.

We all know that the tout and secondary ticketing markets had been uncontrolled for each residence and away Chelsea video games final season. We all know that organised gangs who had prior to now infiltrated VWR had now additionally infiltrated Chelsea’s ticket change and we’ve got shared an instance with the membership how this was  performed through the ticket change so a bot might scrape and purchase each ticket listed on the ticket change therefore why a few of our Members have shared their expertise of itemizing their match tickets at anti-social hours to nonetheless discover it was offered on the ticket change inside seconds.

We all know Chelsea FC have been getting ready for the brand new season and digital implementation however we’ve got stated to them the extra communication the higher on touting can be useful particularly because it is among the principal causes for implementing digital ticketing.

We have now stated to the membership it might be useful in future communications to share key knowledge with supporters and instructed to them that precise numbers are communicated to supporters to supply reassurance what the membership is doing round ticket touting and maybe do some fantasy busting at similar time e.g. touting at Stamford Bridge is principally ST holders promoting on their tickets after we doubt very a lot that that is the case.  A superb place to begin can be the membership’s subsequent touting communication replace might share touting outcomes for 2024/25 season that features the next:

What number of Memberships cancelled
What number of ST cancelled
What number of Membership Chelsea memberships cancelled
End result from video games that had Ticket Assortment Factors final season.

If in the course of the course of the season you could have any examples the place your know a seat has been bought from a tout or on the secondary ticketing market or of a Chelsea supporter that has bought a ticket by a secondary website present the seat quantity row quantity and stand and ship it to [email protected] to analyze.

(A downloadable copy of this replace could be discovered right here)