Greedy touts are trying to cash in on Rangers’ Europa League date with destiny – by flogging tickets for tonight’s crunch semi-final for a whopping £1347.
The prized briefs for the clash against RB Leipzig at Ibrox were yesterday being sold on a number of different resale websites at up to 27 times the face value.
The most expensive ticket was on StubHub costing £1347.
We also found the tickets for the match, which were available to season ticket holders for £50 and other fans for £61, on resale sites LiveFootballTickets, SportEvents365, Ticket4Football andTicketPad.
The briefs to see Gio van Bronckhorst’s men face the Bundesliga side were also linked to on comparison sites SeatPick and SafeTicketCompare.
The cheapest we found tickets being sold online was £428 – more than eight-and-a-half times the £50 face value – on Ticket4Football.com.
Former MP Sir Brian Donohoe, who ran the Westminster Rangers Supporters Club and was once a director of fan group Rangers First, has called on the club to investigate the sales.
He says those responsible for selling the tickets should be banned from Ibrox for life and fans buying from touts should be blocked from entering games.
Donohoe, 73, said: “I thought we had put an end to these touts because you can track tickets.
“It’s the club’s mistake. They should be able to identify the folk who have bought them going in and stop them if they are stupid enough to have bought them.
“The sums being charged by these philistines are outrageous.It’s sad to see because it is season ticket holders and then the supporters clubs that get the tickets. You wouldn’t expect a genuine fan to be trying to profit off other fans.
“You can sit and watch the game in your house on your TV rather than paying these huge sums. I know people will want to say they were there but the club doesn’t benefit from this.”
Donohoe, who served as the MP for Central Ayrshire from 1992 until 2015, said the football world should follow in the footsteps of Ed Sheeran.
The singer introduced rules to clamp down on ticket touts profiting from his gigs.
His rules state fans have to be accompanied by the person who bought the ticket, even if they are not entering to watch the show.
Donohoe added: “These rates are surreal and outrageous. In the rock world, Ed Sheeran has managed to stop any form of touting to his concerts.
“I would suggest football clubs, with the resources they have, should do exactly the same. Football tickets under these circumstances shouldn’t be allowed to be sold on.”
Rangers and Uefa were approached for comment.
Meanwhile, Cinema chain Vue is showing the match on several of its complexes across Scotland, so fans can see if Rangers can recover from a 1-0 first-leg deficit.
The match is being broadcast to cinemas in Stirling, Aberdeen, Hamilton, Glasgow and Inverness.
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