After hours refreshing a web page, Katie May has finally given up on getting tickets to the Matildas World Cup semi-final.
“I’m not a very annoyed person, but this has annoyed me,” she says. “I’m just not looking any more, it was exhausting. I didn’t have any luck trying to get them online.”
May is one of many fans in New South Wales attempting to score tickets to the biggest football match in Australian history – Australia’s face-off in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup against England, which will mark the first time in their history that the Matildas have reached the last four of a World Cup.
Since the Matildas beat France on Saturday night to secure their spot in the semi-finals, desperate fans have combed official and unofficial platforms, looking for tickets to the Wednesday night game in Sydney.
But May says the incredible demand, coupled with the difficulty finding tickets, have exhausted her.
“I’ve just given up,” she says. “Those who have the time to sit on it all day probably got something. It’s just been very disappointing it hasn’t been easier to get tickets.”
Stadium Australia – where Wednesday’s match will be played – has a capacity of about 80,000. There were no tickets to Wednesday’s game available on the Fifa site when Guardian Australia checked on Tuesday. There were some tickets listed for sale on the official Fifa resale platform on Tuesday, but they disappeared within seconds.
Many of the tickets listed for resale were children’s tickets, which can’t be purchased without an adult ticket. Children’s tickets are converted to adult’s tickets if they are unsold for an unspecified period of time.
The site has proved frustrating for fans.
“I tried to get something for hours and just gave up,” says Jumana Husein, a software developer who has tickets, but has been attempting to secure an extra ticket for her five-year-old nephew.
“I gave it a try and I wish I didn’t. I sat on the resale website and refreshed a million times but every time I’d try and get something, I was beaten to it.”
Fifa was contacted for comment.
The ordeal is not helped by the avalanche of scammers attempting to exploit the situation, with Husein saying she was inundated by scammers as soon as she posted in a Facebook group looking for tickets.
“They all ask for the same things and say the exact same thing, as soon as they ask for PayID or something like that, I say nope.
“It’s an absolute nightmare to try and get something legitimate and to avoid all these scammers. Makes me wish for the old days of lining up at a ticket booth.”
The National Anti-Scam Centre issued a warning on Tuesday, urging fans to be “wary” of scammers ahead of the game.
In a statement, it said it had received reports of scams targeting Matildas fans on social media, including fraudulent ticket sales and fake livestream links to matches.
“Fans should be very careful when last-minute ticket shopping for hugely popular events such as the World Cup finals,” the ACCC deputy chair, Catriona Lowe, said.
“We are already seeing initial reports of scam activity, particularly on Facebook, where scammers are responding to posts from people looking for tickets and using compromised accounts to sell non-existent tickets.
“There have also been reports of scammers claiming there is a problem with the payment and asking for it to be made again.”
Mustafa Khan has been warning members of one of the Facebook groups dedicated to ticket exchange to be wary of scammers.
He posted a short guide so people avoid being scammed, which includes instructing people to avoid anyone asking to be sent money via PayPal.
“When I was attempting to get tickets, I was only approached by scammers,” Khan says.
“Not a single person who approached me was a legitimate sellers. We’ve seen an insane spike in the number of scammers, and the demand for tickets, since the Matildas made the semi-final.”
Khan has not been able to secure tickets himself, saying the resale site just “won’t respond”.
“Everyone around me has been attempting to get them, there has been a crazy hike in demand. Everyone wants to go.”
