Stories of football supporters being financially manipulated by footballing organisations are nothing new. Nor are they rare.
But that does not mean they should become any less important as time goes by and fans across the globe are continually ripped off. The football fan is a rare breed.
Loyalty to their chosen club far surpasses the loyalty that most consumers would show to any other product they buy – but that puts them in a rather difficult position of being taken advantage of at any given opportunity.
It perhaps is cold, in some ways, to think of a football supporter as a consumer.
Of course, there is so much more to being a football fan than simply paying for a product, but when it comes down to it, we do pay huge amounts of money to support our teams and it’s only fair that fans are at least told what they’re paying for.
With that in mind, you have to ask why UEFA are asking for supporters to pay for tickets via their credit card rather than a debit card.
Reassurance
The English FA have reassured Euro 2016 supporters that debit cards will work fine in the ticketing process, so are UEFA asking for credit cards to be used so that they can get their hands on that extra 2-3% transaction fee?
It might not seem much but when you consider how many hundreds of thousands of tickets are to be purchased, it’s sure to add up to a nice princely sum for the European footballing body.
Furthermore, you have to ask if the current system of taking payments prior to confirmation emails regarding ticketing is fair?
Shouldn’t a supporter be given enough time to ensure they have enough funds to pay for the product they have ordered?
Unsure cirumstances
Circumstances can change in a supporter’s finances in the months between them applying for a ticket and the money being taken from their account. Shouldn’t they be given more notice that hundreds, perhaps even thousands of pounds could be taken out of their account at any given moment?
Also on that point, some supporters have been told that credit card companies may block large transactions involving foreign accounts for fear of fraud. UEFA have told supporters that in these cases, the applications will be cancelled and tickets handed down to the next applicant in the ballot.
Is this fair? Could the tickets not be purchased and distributed by each Footballing Association in their respective countries, with money then being sent on to UEFA afterwards?
On paper, ticket prices for the competition seem respectable.
Victim of ineptitude
Eurotips.com reported that in some cases, just €25 for entry to an international tournament fixture is very reasonable, particularly when you consider the high price of domestic fixtures in the Premier League for example.
But when you dig a little deeper, you see how supporters could again fall victim of ineptitude from another of football’s questionable governing bodies.
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