Liverpool impose record lifetime bans in crackdown on ticket touting | OneFootball

Liverpool have intensified their battle against ticket touting, closing more than 145,000 accounts in the past two years and issuing a record 1,114 lifetime bans last season, according to BBC Sport.

The Premier League champions revealed that the unprecedented sanctions followed the discovery of widespread manipulation of ticket-buying software, exposing the scale of industrialised resale operations that have plagued English football. In the past 12 months alone, 500 fans were denied entry to Anfield after attempting to gain access using burner phones designed to avoid detection.

The crackdown comes in the wake of a BBC Sport investigation that uncovered the use of bot software and fake identities to purchase hundreds of tickets, later resold at inflated prices through websites operating outside the UK. The practice has not only forced supporters to pay extortionate fees, but has also left many out of pocket after buying non-functioning or fake tickets.

Liverpool said its investigators also shut down 162 social media groups with a combined membership of more than one million, all linked to illicit resale activity. Nearly 400 targeted stops were carried out on match days to block suspicious accounts from reaching turnstiles.

The figures mark a dramatic escalation compared with 2023-24, when just 75 lifetime bans were handed out. The club has introduced multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and enhanced fraud detection tools to strengthen its defences.

Other Premier League clubs have launched similar initiatives. Arsenal report cancelling almost 74,000 accounts this season, while Chelsea claim to have blocked more than 350,000 bot-led attempts. However, Football Supporters’ Association chief Tom Greatrex said that many fans still feel shut out.

“This is becoming endemic across the game,” he warned. “Long-term supporters are finding it impossible to get tickets.”

GFN | Finn Entwistle