Manchester United and Chelsea have joined forces to let fans sell unwanted tickets online.
The service, launched with online ticket exchange company Viagogo, enables the clubs’ season ticket holders to sell unwanted tickets to other club members for Premier League games. It is the first time this has been legally permitted.

David Gill and Peter Kenyon, the chief executives of Manchester United and Chelsea respectively, will unveil the service today and brochures will be sent to 200,000 fans in the clubs’ members schemes, One United and True Blue.

Mr Kenyon said the online ticket exchange would help counter ticket touts.
While it is legal to use sites such as eBay to re-sell tickets to most events such as concerts, it is illegal to sell on football tickets.

As part of the partnership, Viagogo has become a sponsor of both clubs for the next three years.

The so-called “secondary ticketing market” in Europe is worth as much as £5bn, with the UK accounting for about 20% of the total.

The service is accessible from each club’s website. To protect against fraud, every buyer and seller must register full personal details and no money is transferred until the buyer has successfully attended the match the ticket was purchased for.

Ticket sellers pay commission of 15% of the ticket’s face value to Viagogo, while buyers pay 10%.

Viagogo, which aims to expand the concept into Europe, is backed by investors including Index Ventures, the venture capital company that has funded internet start-ups including Skype and Betfair.

Posted: 08|20|06 at 9:37 am. Filed under: UK News.