Ticket scam at Dragão: Porto and police bust major euro scheme | OneFootball

FC Porto, in conjunction with the PSP, dismantled a fraudulent ticket sales scheme at Estádio do Dragão that generated tens of thousands of euros per game.

According to Maisfutebol, 40 season seats were detected for illegal resale on a game-by-game basis, in addition to about 300 member tickets traded through alternative channels since the beginning of the season.

Besides this scheme led by a member, another was identified involving two shell companies used in the illicit sale of tickets.

The numbers refer to the count made in the first three official games at Dragão this season – hosting Vitória de Guimarães, Casa Pia, and Nacional, for the League – and the club's investigation, in close cooperation with the Porto Metropolitan Command of the PSP, had been ongoing for months; the police have now taken action, about three weeks before the game against Benfica.

Tickets sold for 600 euros in the 1st matchday

A newspaper source reveals that an FC Porto member set up a scheme using data from other members to acquire about 40 season seats.

Through this identity manipulation, a single individual improperly controlled this large number of seats, which he resold game by game through Viagogo and StubHub, also trading dozens of individual member tickets on these platforms.

The victims were mainly emigrants and tourists who bought online and, on the day of the game, were prevented from entering by the PSP device for not presenting identification matching the ticket holder's data.

In the match against Vitória de Guimarães, on the 1st matchday of the League, tickets were sold for up to 600 euros in this scheme.

In a conservative estimate, given the volume of tickets placed on the market (via season seats and member tickets), the revenues from this type of scalping are estimated to have reached 50,000 euros in the first official game of the season at Dragão.

The game against Nacional, last Saturday, generated lower revenues, but dozens of fraudulent tickets were sold for 300 to 400 euros, mainly for the west central stand and the south upper stand, where the Super Dragões supporters usually are.

FC Porto submits dossier to the Public Prosecutor's Office

Given the seriousness of the facts, FC Porto will submit a dossier to the Public Prosecutor's Office to integrate these new data into the Golden Ticket process.

Internally, the case will be referred to the club's Fiscal and Disciplinary Council, chaired by Angelino Ferreira, who will decide the sanction to be applied to the involved members – from suspension to expulsion.

The club will also recover the 40 implicated season seats and make them available to members on the waiting list. More than half a thousand members are waiting for an annual seat after FC Porto sold out, for the first time in its history, the 31,000 season seats available at Dragão – which has a capacity of 50,000 seats.

Fight against scalping continues

It should be noted that the management led by André Villas-Boas promoted, at the beginning of the 2025/26 season, a deep restructuring of the ticketing system, both in football and other sports.

Among other measures, the resale of season seats was created through the club's own platforms, which provides compensation in a current account to the respective member.

The fight against illegal ticket sales was one of Villas-Boas's banners, elected president of FC Porto on April 27, 2024. Since the new administration took office, the illicit sale of tickets on game days has ceased to be a common practice at Estádio do Dragão and Dragão Arena.

Given the change in the pattern of supply on the black market, FC Porto will continue, in partnership with the PSP, to monitor potential irregularities in access to the club's facilities on game days.

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