In 65 days time, the European Football Championship 2024 in Germany, so eagerly awaited by fans and footballers alike, is just around the corner. In the run-up to the tournament, there has already been some criticism of the ticket allocation by the organizer, the European Football Association UEFA. Many fans are disappointed and feel unfairly treated. We summarize what the fans think about the ticket allocation, which has now become a farce.
20 Million Requests for 1.2 Million Tickets
Fans were able to apply for the 1.2 million tickets available from 3rd of October last year, and demand exceeded all of UEFA’s expectations in the first application phase. A total of 20 million ticket requests were received by the European Football Association within the first few hours, leading to the collapse of the entire ticketing system on the very first day. Many fans were not even given the opportunity to apply for tickets, as they only received an unknown error message on their screen.
Some Teams weren’t even qualified at that point
Another fact that made the fans angry was that some nations had not even qualified for the tournament in Germany at that time, so fans of Poland, Greece, Kazakhstan and Wales had to apply at random. Some nations were surprisingly eliminated from the qualifiers, with underdog Georgia beating the favourites Greece in the final play-off match to qualify for the tournament in June. In the UEFA ticket portal, it was therefore only possible to apply for individual match days, i.e. you select the stadium and the match day you want to apply for and the portal then shows, for example: Matchday 2, Dortmund, Match 32. So fans neither knew which team was playing there, nor whether they had any chance of getting tickets. In addition, the teams that had qualified up to that point were not even allocated a place in one of the 6 preliminary round groups on the start date of the first sales phase. This meant that all other fans had to apply for tickets at random.
The Community shares their Knowledge on Reddit
Fans are also venting their displeasure on the social media platform Reddit. Users have set up a community where fans can discuss the latest developments on the ticket market and ask their questions, as UEFA is only responding to a few enquiries. Around 1,500 fans have currently gathered in the Reddit community to look forward to the European Championships together. Despite the somewhat depressed mood due to the controversial ticket allocation, the fans are not letting the joy of football be taken away from them, and rumours, predictions and tips are already being exchanged on the platform around two months before the start of the tournament.
Even if UEFA has not covered itself in glory in this case and has once again shown that the interests of the fans are not necessarily the highest priority for the European Football Association, the fans will not let their mood be spoilt. If you are not one of the lucky ones to have got hold of a ticket for the tournament, you can still support your team at one of the many public viewing events this year and enjoy the special European Championship atmosphere.
