Liverpool crackdown on touting widens as 145,000 ticket accounts shut down and 1,114 lifetime bans issued

Liverpool shut down 145,000 ticket accounts over the past two years as part of a crackdown on touting, BBC Sport can reveal. The action accompanies a record 1,114 lifetime bans handed out last season after investigators uncovered mass manipulation of software used to buy tickets. In the last 12 months, 500 people were denied entry to Anfield for attempting to gain access with burner phones used by touts to avoid tracing, a development that follows the discovery of an industrial-scale black market in Premier League tickets.

Investigators for Liverpool also shut down 162 social media groups with a combined membership of more than one million users that were involved in selling fake tickets or reselling real tickets at extortionate rates. Around 400 targeted stops were carried out on match days to prevent access at turnstiles for accounts flagged as suspicious. The 1,114 lifetime bans mark a sharp rise from 75 imposed during the 2023-24 campaign. Liverpool closed 100,000 fake accounts in the 2023-24 season, and officials say new preventative measures—multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and more advanced fraud analysis tools—have helped reduce illicit activity.

Liverpool, which has more than 30,000 season ticket holders, operates an official sanctions process in which senior club officials and a member from an independent supporter association hear cases and decide on appropriate actions. The club says the majority of lifetime bans and indefinite suspensions were for unauthorised selling of season tickets, memberships, or hospitality tickets. Liverpool is among several top clubs pledging to broaden resources to combat touting. Arsenal have cancelled almost 74,000 accounts attempting to obtain tickets through unauthorised means and banned over 7,000 memberships this season, while Chelsea says it has blocked more than 350,000 attempted purchases from bots.

But in a broader critique of the sport, Tom Greatrex, head of the Football Supporters Association, told BBC Sport that some Premier League clubs appear uneven in their commitment to tackling touting. “Long-term supporters are finding it impossible to get tickets because of the way they are made available through secondary agencies,” he said. “This is becoming endemic across the game.”

The Premier League has urged fans to use extreme caution when using unauthorised sites and is introducing encrypted barcodes for digital ticketing, a measure it says will make touting more difficult. Home Office statistics show only 12 arrests were recorded last season for ticket touting across the top six tiers of English football. In a statement, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “The unauthorised resale of football match tickets in England and Wales is illegal. Legislation is in place to minimise the risk of disorder, with football clubs responsible for implementing their own strategies to prevent ticket sales to unauthorised resellers. While the law applies only to domestic resales, it covers any element of an unauthorised sales chain that takes place within England and Wales.”