\n<\/p>\n
Porto have dismantled one of the largest ticket-scalping networks uncovered in football, reclaiming hundreds of seats at their Est\u00e1dio do Drag\u00e3o that had been exploited for profit on the illegal resale market. The operation was earning its ringleaders tens of thousands of euros a match.<\/p>\n
Porto said one alleged ringleader had convinced dozens of people to hand over personal details, which he used to register them as club members and purchase season tickets in their names. \u201cThese schemes reached an impressive scale, with dozens of seats controlled by a single individual,\u201d the club said in a statement to the Guardian. \u201cWe also identified businesses processing hundreds of transactions, serving as fronts for this unlawful activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tourists were the primary targets and, according to the club, some tickets sold for as much as \u20ac800 (\u00a3695). Hundreds of seats have been identified and returned to Porto\u2019s control but the investigation is ongoing and the tally could rise.<\/p>\n
Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also detected fake tickets being sold at inflated prices,\u201d the club said. \u201cUnfortunately, in those cases, there is little we can do beyond advising fans not to buy from unofficial channels.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian was alerted to the scalping operation after Porto\u2019s season opener against Vit\u00f3ria Guimar\u00e3es on 11 August, when two Danish tourists, proudly wearing the club\u2019s blue and white colours, were chatting at the metro station next to the stadium. \u201cThe experience was amazing,\u201d one of the fans said, \u201cbut the prices were surprisingly steep. The tickets cost \u20ac200 each \u2013 we weren\u2019t expecting to pay that much for a regular Portuguese league match. And we were behind one of the goals; the view wasn\u2019t the best.\u201d<\/p>\n The pair had used online resale platforms to secure seats for the sold-out match. Their gamble paid off \u2013 the tickets arrived in their Google Wallets \u2013 but something seemed off. One ticket bore the name of a woman \u2013 a Porto member \u2013 and the other was a season-ticket QR code. In theory, that code could have granted entry to every home league match this season, provided it was scanned first at the turnstile.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we bought the tickets, we received a message telling us to delete the passes from our wallets after the game,\u201d said the fan who held the season ticket. The Guardian opened an investigation but police, it transpired, were on the case. In a coordinated operation with Porto, they cracked down on the network weeks later.<\/p>\n Ticket scalping has been commonplace for years at Porto. Until Andr\u00e9 Villas-Boas was elected president last year, transactions often took place in plain sight before matches, frequently involving the club\u2019s ultras. The main supporters\u2019 group, Super Drag\u00f5es, reportedly received thousands of tickets from the club at discounted rates, which they resold for profit around the stadium.<\/p>\n <\/span>Andr\u00e9 Villas-Boas has worked to give power back to regular fans since he became the president of Porto.<\/span> Photograph: Oct\u00e1vio Passos\/Uefa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Villas-Boas, the former Chelsea and Tottenham manager, promised to restore transparency and give power back to regular fans. The ultras\u2019 privileges were revoked and the club switched to a fully online ticketing system designed to reward loyalty.<\/p>\n But scalpers adapted \u2013 and aimed higher. They began purchasing seats in premium areas, more expensive upfront but capable of yielding far greater profit. With the team performing well and the 50,000-seat stadium frequently selling out days in advance, business was booming. In some uncovered cases, deals were made through messaging apps, cutting out the commissions charged by resale platforms.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cThe most common method of resale was through digital platforms,\u201d the club said. \u201cBut we also detected groups on social media, WhatsApp and other channels that were more informal and discreet. FC Porto is closely monitoring the evolution of these murky dealings and their participants.\u201d<\/p>\n The crackdown has been added by Portuguese police to a broader investigation it launched in 2024 into ticketing schemes run by the ultras. A police spokesperson said: \u201cIn this operation FC Porto cooperated with the authorities and has since become an assistant in the ongoing court case, which remains under legal secrecy during the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n After Porto\u2019s action do Portuguese fans believe the club acted in defence of supporters\u2019 interests \u2013 or their own? \u201cBoth,\u201d says Martha Gens, spokesperson for APDA, the Portuguese supporters\u2019 association. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a country where the [monthly] minimum wage isn\u2019t even \u20ac1,000. We believe there should be legal caps on ticket prices. And after all, ticket-scalping is a crime in Portugal \u2013 we shouldn\u2019t forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n The ringleaders and their accomplices will have to answer not only to the authorities but also to Porto. The club are weighing disciplinary measures that could lead to their permanent expulsion from membership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Porto have dismantled one of the largest ticket-scalping networks uncovered in football, reclaiming hundreds of seats at their Est\u00e1dio do Drag\u00e3o that had been exploited for profit on the illegal resale market. The operation was earning its ringleaders tens of thousands of euros a match. Porto said one alleged ringleader had convinced dozens of people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[752,17534,1413,278,549,17535,6576],"class_list":{"0":"post-29730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-biggest","9":"tag-dismantle","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-networks","12":"tag-porto","13":"tag-ticketscalping","14":"tag-uncovered"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?<\/h4>\n
\n