Wanting To Get A Ticket For An Arsenal Match: Take Care And Follow These Rules

Wanting To Get A Ticket For An Arsenal Match: Take Care And Follow These Rules

Arsenal, in common with a number of other Premier League clubs, has been reporting a significant growth in the number of fraudulent “tickets” that have been offered on sale this season. Needless to say, anyone who turns up with a fake ticket is refused entry, and there is no compensation from the club.

Of course Arsenal is particularly vulnerable to this type of problem because virtually every game sells out, and some fans become quite desperate to get to a particular match. So sometimes desire overcomes sense.


But before you part with your money, please do read what follows.

The first thing to note is that the Emirates Stadium does sell out, and therefore Arsenal has no need to deal through individual small scale ticket agencies. In a sense this is fairly obvious; Arsenal deals directly with the people who come to matches, and so why should it pay a commission to agencies to sell the tickets on?

The only people other than Arsenal and the away club (if you want to be with the away supporters) and the registered Arsenal fan clubs overseas, who have tickets are travel agents who arrange weekend package deals including travel and hotels.

Such travel agencies have to be covered by law through various insurance processes so that if the travel company goes into liquidation or there is any other sort of problem, people travelling with them are brought back home. So it should be fairly easy to see if the agency is real or not.

Thus the simple summary is, if you are just trying to buy a ticket for the game the only reliable sources are Arsenal FC, the away club (normally you have to be a member of their travel club) and overseas Arsenal supporters clubs (who are registered with Arsenal) and travel companies who offer transport, a hotel and the like. No one else has legitimate tickets.

These links will help:

For tickets: http://www.arsenal.com/tickets

For membership: http://www.alwaysaheadofthegame.com/  (It is hard to get tickets if you are not a member – and again this is a reason why you should be cautious of anyone other than Arsenal selling tickets – those of us who pay money each year to be members can sometimes find it hard to get a ticket for particular games. If we thought Arsenal were selling tickets to touts and third parties rather than those of us who pay membership fees, I think there would be uproar).

For officially recognised overseas clubs: http://www.arsenal.com/fanzone/arsenal-supporters-clubs

Above all, my recommendation is that you remember that Arsenal is an extremely popular club, and that every match sells out. So if you want to go to a particular game, don’t wait until a week before the match to try and get a ticket.   Tickets for silver members go on sale about two months before each match, and tickets for red members about one month before.

The dates of when tickets are available, as well as the status of games that are just a few weeks away, are to be found on http://www.arsenal.com/tickets – just keep scrolling down.

Tickets can then be bought on line with a credit or debit card.

A final word of warning. I have had it reported to me that many touts make a habit of telling people that all tickets get sold on the opening day of sale, and/or that Red members can never get tickets. This is not true. For all games at the Emirates some tickets are held back for Red members, and at any one time you can usually buy tickets for any one of three or four games.

Yes, if you insist that you only want to see Arsenal v Chelsea, or Arsenal v Man U that is going to make it hard, but if you just want to go to Arsenal and see a game, then go to the club site, note the dates of sales and apply.

And above all, show your support for the club either by joining Arsenal as a Red Member or by joining the officially recognised supporters’ club in your country or region.   (And if there isn’t one of those, contact Arsenal to discuss how you can set one up. That way, you’ll be offered a number of tickets for selected games each season, and you can organise the whole trip).

Whatever else you do, don’t buy from an unofficial site, unless it is a travel agent offering a complete package including hotel, travel and the like.

Please Note: For comprehensive information on how to buy Arsenal tickets you can read our updated The Gooner News Guide To Buying Tickets To Watch The Arsenal- Version 2.0  and for information on how to get to the stadium you can read the other excellent guide for Gooners – How To Get To The Emirates To Watch Arsenal

Once again these excellent guides are contributed by our season ticket holding correspondent and all-around Arsenal expert who you can reach at @UntoldArsenal or at Jacko Jones.

N.B. While we have tried our very best to make sure that the information in this post is accurate we cannot guarantee it so please check with the club and relevant authorities to verify information.