GENERAL TICKET INFORMATION

One of the best experiences when visiting a foreign country is going to a football match. But when you're planning to go there, there is always this insecurity: "What if we won't be able to get tickets?"
This section is provided to give some general guidelines about how to get football tickets. You can find country-specific information at the specific country page.

There are many different ways to get football tickets. Although things differ much between countries there are some general things you can try:

- Always check out the official website of the club first. Many clubs offer very detailed ticket information on their websites. This information can include ticket prices, a stadium seating plan, telephone numbers (sometimes there is a special ticket hotline), pre-sale adresses and other relevant information. In some cases there is the possibility to order tickets on-line. British clubs offer the possibility to order tickets via a postal application. The information about the ticket sales is usually better in the Northern-Eruopean countries that in the Southern-European countries.

- When the club website does not provide some usuful information, just surf along some fansites of the club. In many cases some fan sites are better than the official site.

- When contacting a foreign club always remember that the communication can be really hard sometimes. First of all, many clubs don't answer any emails (service hasn't entered the world of football yet) and especially do not sell tickets via email, so don't put all your hopes on sending an email.
Contacting a club by phone can work out fine, especially when there is a special 'ticket hotline', but can be a disaster too. Club attendants don't speak English, are very rude and are not willing to help you. Of course there are many exceptions, but remember this.

- Some clubs offer online ticket sales via a intermediaries, like Ticketmaster (UK), Ticketone (Italy) or Billetnet.dk (Denmark). These are reliable companies. On the other hand there are many websites that offer football tickets for extremely high prices. At some matche this is your only chance to get tickets, but sometimes it is just as easy to buy tickets at the box-office at the stadium for only one fifth of the price. Use your common sense before buying at these websites.

- When this all has failed you have to put your hopes on getting the tickets in the country of destination. This isn't that hard as it might seem.

- First of all you can go to the stadium a couple of days before the match. There are often box offices at the stadium where you can buy tickets or you can buy tickets via the club office. This is a very easy way to get tickets and this is possible in almost all Western-European countries.

- Many clubs sell tickets via kiosks, tabacco shops, sport shops, restaurants, tourist offices, department stores or any other special outlet. There are often lists of these outlets on the official website of the club. This is the case in for example Germany & France.

- And finally there is the most easy way to get your ticekts. Just buy them at the box-office at the day of the match! This is possible at almost all countries as long as the match isn't sold out. Exceptions here are Belgium and partly the Netherlands where special 'club cards' are required to order tickets.

- Getting tickets can be a real problem when a match is (or will be) sold out. At some clubs all matches are sold out, at others only the big matches and the derbies. Use your common sense when planning to see a match.
When all matches of a club during the season are sold out contact the club before going to the match. There are often some tickets left for free sale.
When it's a big match or a derby don't expect to get tickets (although you can always try by contacting the clubs). It is nearly impossible to get Real Madrid-Atletico tickets for example. Then your last option is to buy a ticket at the black market (against a very high price). Since this is illegal I would never recommend to do this.

Good luck!