The crusade against those who exploit Barça for profit

BarcelonaYears ago, when Barça members received their Camp Nou season tickets at home, they found a letter inside reminding them that transferring them for a fee was not allowed. "Leaving your membership card" or "leaving your seat" was very common. It was also common for people to break the rules and ask for something in return. This could be in kind—a dinner, a gift—or by charging money. The club knows this is the case and also knows that historically it has been difficult to stop. But in recent months, it has launched a campaign against those who misuse their season tickets, especially those who do so repeatedly and have turned their stadium seat into a business.

The proximity of the match against Eintracht Frankfurt has brought the issue into the media spotlight. Having learned from what happened in 2022, the club, presided over by Joan Laporta, doesn't want a repeat of those scenes, in which many people resold season tickets that ended up en masse in the hands of the Eagles' supporters. And they certainly don't want it to happen in an election year, with the stadium operating at less than 50% capacity due to renovations and with qualification for the next round of the Champions League hanging in the balance. In a statement, Barça warned that there will be more obstacles than ever before, that controls will be increased, and that anyone caught will be reported to the Disciplinary Committee, where they risk losing their season ticket holder status. This is what could happen to the 361 members who have been suspected of reselling tickets; the club has already contacted them and will open disciplinary proceedings against them.

The Seient Lliure, a legal resale program launched in 2001

In the 2001-2002 season, Barça implemented Seient Lliure (Free Seat), an ingenious way to legally resell season tickets. If a season ticket holder couldn't attend a match at Camp Nou, they notified the club, and the club could sell the ticket to someone else. The system was refined until it became an essential tool for the club, as it allowed them to multiply the number of available tickets and, therefore, increase revenue. But, as always, where there's a will, there's a way. Some members discovered that if they put all the matches up for sale, they ended up recouping much more money than the season ticket cost. So Barça established two rules: that a maximum of 95% of the season ticket price could be recovered, and that the amount wouldn't be collected immediately but would be deducted from the following season's ticket.

These limitations were not well received. As a final note, the Seient Lliure (Free Seat) program is currently suspended until Camp Nou reaches full capacity, so no one can claim any discounts. Therefore, resale has continued unabated. In some cases, this has been done professionally, with one person collecting season tickets and distributing them to customers at a meeting point near Camp Nou, usually the... hall from a hotel. Even in 2018, the club and the police detected counterfeit tickets created using the barcodes of some season tickets. For a Barça-Madrid match, a large-scale operation was organized that resulted in the seizure of up to 3,000 tickets.

Beyond the financial loss this represents for Barça, this buying and selling also led to potential security problems, as it was impossible to control who entered the stadium. Therefore, a system of personalized tickets was established, which, for away matches, had to be collected near the stadium upon presentation of an ID. This system slowed ticket resale for these types of matches, but did not completely prevent it. And it was a difficult proposal to implement in stadiums like Camp Nou, where fans arrive at the last minute and it is literally impossible to check 100,000 tickets – whether individual tickets or season tickets – in a space of twenty or thirty minutes.

The e-ticketthe future of tickets

The pandemic coincided with a change in the sales process, and over time, the classic PDF ticket disappeared. Once again, resellers simply forwarded these documents to their customers, so Barça started sending them 24 hours in advance. Even this didn't stop the problem. The fight against fraud was also effective in the sales process, limiting the number of tickets per person and preventing anyone from buying tickets from outside Spain or with a foreign credit card. The latest innovation is the electronic ticket, which can only be obtained through an app—either the members' app or one that the general public must download. The QR code used for entry is generated at the last minute, and this app doesn't allow screenshots.

During Barça's stay at Montjuïc, the PDF and electronic tickets coexisted. With the return to Camp Nou, Barça has decided to eliminate it. This wasn't the case in the opening match against Athletic Club, but it was in the Barça-Alabès game, where only the [unclear - possibly "the ones" or "the ones"] could be used. e-ticketsIt was a trial by fire that didn't go well, as the system became overloaded and it was necessary to resort to PDFs again. The Barcelona version is that the problem is now solved and will never happen again, not even when the stadium reaches 105,000 seats. So, the future involves entering with a mobile phone without exception, even for the elderly or those with difficulties accessing new technologies.

Despite these obstacles, some loopholes remain. For example? Season ticket holders have the right to transfer their seat, provided they notify the club beforehand. Whether or not they charge for this is very difficult to detect. So far, and in preparation for the Eintracht Frankfurt match, 353 club members and 8 season ticket holders have been caught trying to profit from the purchase or transfer of their tickets. And before the match, increased security checks at the entrances are planned, on a day when the Guardia Urbana (Barcelona's municipal police) and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) will have a more active presence to deter potential ticket scalpers outside the stadium. "The goal is to limit ticket scalping as much as possible. But we have to be realistic, eliminating it 100% is impossible," they admit in the Camp Nou's executive offices.