Euro 2016 tickets: Unofficial websites could leave fans refused entry at the stadium

With five days until the start of the tournament, an investigation has found that tickets are being sold illegally on unofficial secondary websites

Tickets are being sold on unofficial websites for up to £5,000 (Flickr)

Football fans could be turned away from matches after an investigation warned unauthorised websites are selling illegal Euro 2016 tickets.

With five days to go until the start of the tournament, consumer group Which? has reported that tickets are being sold on unofficial secondary websites in breach of ticket restrictions and consumer law, leaving fans at risk of being turned away from the ground.

Rules by the European football body Uefa state ticket-holders are likely to need photo ID to get into the grounds – and these won’t match the name on the ticket if it is an unofficial one.

Uefa states that tickets cannot be resold anywhere but their official resale website.

Tickets are being sold on these touting websites for up to £5,000 – and the prices are expected to rise as the tournament finale gets closer.

Three unathorised websites - gettickets.co, atstickets.com and europeanchampionshiptickets.com – were contacted by Which? but all three failed to respond.

The investigation also found that tickets being sold on these sites and others are in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, as they do not communicate the seat location, original face value of the ticket or the ticket restrictions.

An Uefa spokesperson told Which?: “Uefa stresses that no tickets for individual football fans are being distributed via agencies or brokers, and encourages fans not to be lured into deals with touts, who not only demand exorbitant prices but are often not even in possession of the tickets they purport to have for sale.”

Alex Neill, Which? director of policy and campaigns, made a public warning to ticket buyers and urged that more should be done to prevent unofficial sites from scamming customers.

She said: "If you haven't bought your ticket directly from an official source, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get into the game and you could be left thousands of pounds out of pocket.

"More must be done both in the UK and across the borders to stop these sites breaking the rules and scamming members of the public."

Warning signs of fake sites include places selling tickets in large volumes, recently set up websites and any site that requires payment to be sent by wire transfer.

Which? has encouraged ticket buyers to use their official guide on how to tell if a ticket seller is official or not.