Tickets for Euro 2024 are hard to come by. Horrendous prices were paid in Dortmund before Turkey’s match against Portugal.
Ticket madness in Dortmund. In the final hours before Turkey’s second preliminary round match against Portugal at the Signal Iduna Park, around 1,000 euros were paid for a ticket on the black market.
Crazy. Turkish supporters seem to be willing to pay almost anything to see their national team play in Germany. On the internet sales platform Viagogo, the price on Saturday morning for the cheapest ticket was 773 euros – and that with a restricted view. The face value of the ticket was 50 euros.
“That’s crazy,” said a fan from Anatolia (name known to the editor). He himself bought a ticket for 600 euros after the win against Georgia. Almost a bargain. “After the 3:1, the prices, which were already around 400 euros per ticket, exploded again,” he says.
At the same time, almost 800 tickets were for sale on Viagogo alone. So there are many ticket holders who now see the purchase of a ticket more as an object of action and thus finance almost an entire family vacation with two tickets.
“That’s obviously not healthy for soccer,” says the 40-year-old. The football-mad Turk from Eskisehir, who travels to many tournaments and was at the last World Cup in Qatar, for example, works abroad and has a corresponding income as an engineer. “But of course many people can no longer afford it. How are families supposed to pay for it? The tournament is increasingly becoming a game for business people and people with money or connections.” That doesn’t do justice to the sport and the basic idea.
He had already bought tickets for Turkey’s first match against Georgia on the secondary market. “They cost 200 euros with an original price of 30 euros,” he explained. UEFA would have to come up with something. The fact that there are no more paper tickets and the entire trade is now digital has certainly not harmed the black market.
Of course, he still enjoyed his time in Germany. Between the two Turkey games, he watched matches in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and Düsseldorf. “I spent part of my vacation here. The atmosphere alone during Turkey’s win against Georgia was breathtaking and unforgettable. It was worth every penny. “
