Liverpool FC joins forces with Merseyside Police to strengthen its ongoing fight against all forms of ticket touting with successes totalling £1.2m already. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool FC is putting further pressure on ticket touts with a partnership with Merseyside Police.
With the new Premier League season just weeks ago the club has launched a fresh drive to strengthen its ongoing fight against all forms of ticket touting. It is working with the force’s Economic Crime Team on the problem.
So far they have successfully detained more than £1.2m in assets related to organised ticket touts, with a number of active cases ongoing under Proceeds of Crime legislation.
In addition to the monies detained, there have also been three cases of touting in the past 12 months, all linked to LFC, two have been convicted and one is due to appear in court next month.
The police operation focuses on the laundering of criminal proceeds from illicit ticket sales and sits alongside the club’s continuing crackdown on all forms of ticketing touting, both online and on the ground, to protect genuine fans from being exploited, ripped off or scammed.
LFC analysed almost 700,000 ticket registrations last season alone, with 67,663 suspected fake accounts blocked or cancelled, and a further 121,379 accounts currently under investigation.
This work has also led to the club issuing 432 lifetime bans – 383 to All Red Members, 41 to Season Ticket Holders and eight to Seasonal Hospitality Members – and 115 indefinite suspensions – 91 to All Red Members and 24 to Season Ticket Holders – across the 25/26 season.
A lifetime ban is a permanent ban. An indefinite suspension has a minimum period attached to it (typically 3 years) after which the account holder must apply for reinstatement.
Both have a right to appeal and then the right to appeal to the Independent Football Ombudsman. The majority of lifetime bans and indefinite suspensions were handed down for unauthorised selling of season tickets, membership tickets or hospitality tickets.
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The club said: “With more club investigatory resources on the ground on matchdays there was a 33% increase in the number of burner phones either identified and entry into Anfield denied or seized by Merseyside Police last season.
“There was also a significant increase in targeted stops carried out on matchdays by LFC, preventing access to the turnstiles for accounts with suspicious activity – rising from 381 across the 24/25 season to 3,608 last year, an increase of 847%.”