Liverpool vs Sevilla: Europa League final tickets selling for five times the amount of last year's

The average ticket price for this year’s final on one resale platform is £550

Liverpool supporters are paying sizeable amounts for a chance to see their team in the Europa League final (Getty)

Tickets for this year’s Europa League final between Liverpool and Sevilla are selling at more than five times the amount of last year’s, according to one fan-to-fan resale platform.

The average ticket price for this year’s match-up is £550 on Ticketbis.net, 158 per cent more than the average over the previous four years (£213).

By contrast, tickets for last year’s final, between Sevilla and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Warsaw, were sold for an average of just £119.

The most expensive ticket sold for this year’s final on Ticketbis was purchased by a Russian supporter for £2,355, which represents a sizeable mark-up from the face value. One VIP ticket still available on the website is listed at a price of £30,115.

Tickets were originally sold in four different price categories, ranging between £36 and £130.

“Despite English teams not doing so well as the Spanish clubs in Europe of late, they still generate a larger demand for tickets,” said a Ticketbis spokesperson.

“If we consider the last five Europa League finals, you’ll see that the most expensive prices are found for the matches that involve two Premier League teams, Chelsea and Liverpool.”

Liverpool were allocated just 10,600 tickets for the game, which will be held at the 38,512-capacity St. Jakob-Park, and received more than 17,000 applications from supporters.

Sevilla, meanwhile, failed to sell their full allocation, which led to a further 1,600 tickets being awarded to their opponents from Merseyside.

Demand, however, has still not been sated and many ticket-holders have used the appetite for spares to earn vast profits on the second-hand market.

Viagogo, another online ticket re-sale platform, has decided to block users from the United Kingdom from purchasing tickets for the match.

The choice to hold the game at St. Jakob-Park has been widely criticised by Liverpool supporters, given its relatively small capacity compared to other final venues.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, defended their choice of venue and claimed that capacity is only one of the factors considered when selecting a host stadium.

“Uefa tends to select slightly smaller, top-quality venues for the Uefa Europa League final,” a statement on the governing body’s website read.

“This means Uefa can give more of its national associations an opportunity to host a club final, and gives fans across Europe the chance to experience a major final in their home nation.”

Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, was forced to withdraw his invitation to the club’s supporters after telling them to travel to Basle en masse, regardless of their ticketing situation.

“We have to take back the invitation to Basel,” he said. “Please only people with tickets go there, everything else will be chaos, we don't want this. We want to concentrate on football.”