Corinthians spot dodgy tickets, bar fans from derby at Neo Química Arena | OneFootball

Corinthians carried out an operation against ticket scalping during the derby against Santos, played last Sunday (30) at Neo Química Arena in the Brazilian Championship. After identifying signs of irregularities in ticket sales, the club blocked approximately 300 tickets and prevented their holders from entering the stadium.

According to information released by ge, the anti-fraud system used by Fiel Torcedor found around 2,200 registrations and tickets with behavior considered suspicious of involvement in scalping. The number corresponds to nearly 5% of the 47,099 paying fans recorded for the match.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

Despite the number identified, Corinthians chose to block only around 300 tickets before the match. The decision took the safety of the operation into account, since simultaneously preventing more than two thousand people from entering could cause an excessive concentration of fans at the entrances and create turmoil at the gates of Neo Química Arena.

Corinthians set up an operation to prevent entry

The irregularities were identified through the control tools of the Fiel Torcedor program, which are capable of analyzing usage patterns in registrations and purchased tickets.

The problem had already caught the club’s attention before. In the match against Rosario Central in the Libertadores, there was an increase in the number of records considered irregular. The situation indicated to Corinthians that scalpers may have found ways to circumvent the security mechanisms adopted in ticket sales.

Given the scenario, the club prepared a specific operation for the derby against Santos. The number of employees involved in access control was increased, and reinforcement from the Military Police was requested to monitor the operation.

When a person tried to enter Neo Química Arena using one of the blocked tickets, employees asked for identification to verify the data. According to the report, almost all of the holders approached left the venue after admitting they had bought the tickets from third parties.

These fans were not allowed into the stadium and were instructed on the official procedure for purchasing tickets to Corinthians matches.

Facial biometrics are mandatory for entry

Currently, the official sale of tickets for Corinthians matches takes place exclusively through Fiel Torcedor. To use the system, it is necessary to register with a CPF and facial biometrics, both of which must belong to the same person who will use the ticket to enter the stadium.

The program has approximately 1.332 million registrations with facial identification on file.

The adoption of biometrics is part of the measures used by the club to increase control over who purchases and uses each ticket, in addition to making the transfer and illegal resale of tickets more difficult.

Even with these mechanisms, the signs found in recent matches led Corinthians to identify new vulnerabilities in the process. The board’s intention now is to strengthen the anti-fraud system and review security protocols to make new actions by scalpers more difficult.

The value of the blocked tickets remained on the match report

The approximately 300 blocked tickets were not refunded. Therefore, the amounts paid for those tickets continued to be counted on the derby’s financial report.

Corinthians and Santos recorded a gross revenue of R$ 3,284,703.18, with 47,099 paying fans at Neo Química Arena.

On the field, Timão ended up being defeated 1-0 by their Santos rivals. Now, while working to improve control mechanisms in ticket sales, Corinthians are preparing to return to Neo Química Arena next Sunday (6), when they host Chapecoense at 7:30 p.m. (Brasília time) in the 26th round of the Brazilian Championship.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.