Barcelona detect network of making fake tickets to enter Camp Nou

Barcelona announced late Monday that the club detected a big sale of counterfeit tickets for the Clasico between Barca and Real Madrid on May 6 in the Camp Nou. The club worked out the cost of the economic fraud is around 1.5 million euros. "We're talking about a massive, organized, articulated and very sophisticated case," spokesman Josep Vives said.

This black market is likely made up of a network of unidentified people who would have contacted 2,823 FC Barcelona members to loan their season tickets and thus obtain an illicit economic return. Most of these season tickets ended up in the hands of tourists with high purchasing power since the prices paid for these tickets were exorbitant. The club did not prevent people who bought those counterfeit tickets getting in to avoid incidents in a game which was already a high-risk encounter.

The 'modus operandi' of this network consists in obtaining an official and legal season ticket (provided by a socio) and with the data of that subscription, printing a fake ticket with a high degree of sophistication. Vives showed a photo of all the tickets seized.

FC Barcelona has for years carried out a crusade against these practices, that economically harm the club, mainly through their program 'Seient Lliure', as the season ticket is personal and non-transferable and is property of the club.

In all league and European away trips as well as the Copa del Rey final, all the tickets that were given out were named and had to be collected at the destination, presenting the membership card and an identity card.

From now on all these cases, one by one, will go to the Disciplinary Committee of FC Barcelona who will call all the socios to whom these memberships belong. The first measure, urgent and exceptional, has been confiscate the season tickets so that they can no longer be used by those who have been involved in this.