LONDON – Black market tickets for Chelsea’s potential Premier League title party at the Hawthorns on Friday are being offered for sale at up to £1 800 (R31 354).
The tickets have a face value of £30 (R 523) but touts are cashing in on the fact that Chelsea can clinch the Premier League title by beating West Bromwich Albion.
The away section is officially sold out but second-hand online sellers are still touting tickets at extortionate prices - despite this being the first season of the Premier League’s £30 (R 523) price cap policy on away tickets.
The cheapest away ticket on Ticketbis is currently £540 (R9 414). The most expensive is £1,789 (R31 189).
FootballTicketTrade, another website, had tickets at £950 (R16 562).
When Leicester City won the title last year, touts demanded as much as £8 000 (R139 471) a ticket from fans who wanted to be at their final game of the season at the King Power Stadium.
Albion still have some home tickets for sale - but only for fans with a history of going to matches at the Hawthorns.
West Brom will not put those remaining seats on general sale - a step they also took for Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game as Manchester United boss — to help prevent crowd trouble.
Albion admit some tickets may end up on the black market but any Chelsea fans who end up in the home sections risk being ejected as a safety measure.