2023 FA Cup Final tickets: how to avoid scams for Man Utd vs Man City Wembley clash - five key tips

Football fans hoping to go to the FA Cup Final are being urged to be cautious about scams.

Manchester City will take on Manchester United in the historic fixture on Saturday 3 June. Around 61,000 fans from both clubs will travel to Wembley Stadium, with the remaining tickets set to go to the FA, its commercial partners and sponsors.

Given the ticket allocations of 30,500 per club are much smaller than their respective fanbases, access to the match is likely to be highly sought after - all the more so with the game being a Manchester derby, as well as a shot at history for treble-seeking City.

The Cityzens have all but wrapped up the Premier League title and face a finely-poised Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday (17 May). Meanwhile, the Red Devils will be chasing their second trophy of the season having won the Carabao Cup in February.

So, if you’re hoping to go to the FA Cup Final, what should you be wary about when trying to sort out a ticket? Here’s what you need to know.

Is there an FA Cup Final ticket scam?

NationalWorld approached Manchester City, Manchester United and City of London Police - the force that leads on UK fraud investigations - to see if they were aware of any existing ticket scams related to the FA Cup Final.

Manchester United said it was monitoring for scams and would draw its fans’ attention to them if it discovered any in the run up to the event. Manchester City did not respond.

While it did not highlight any evidence of existing fraud schemes, City of London Police said £6.7 million had been lost to ticket fraud in 2022 - although this included music and comedy events, as well as sport.

It follows other recent warnings about ticket fraud. Ahead of the Carabao Cup final in February, Newcastle United fans were warned about fake tickets. The BBC found counterfeits were being sold on social media in advance of the Magpies’ first Wembley final since 1999.

Meanwhile, Lloyds Bank reported last year that it had seen a 68% increase in ticket scams over the second half of the 2021/22 Premier League season. It found the average amount lost by fans was £410.

How can you avoid ticket scams?

Official FA Cup Final tickets have been on sale since Friday (12 May). They are unlikely to go on general sale, with most of the allocation likely to be taken up by season ticket holders. To see all the information you need for FA Cup Final tickets, you should head to the Manchester City and Manchester United ticketing pages.

When asked by NationalWorld about how its fans could avoid scams, Manchester United urged supporters to only go through official channels to get hold of tickets. The club said it had seen 2,000 incidences of ticket touting in the 2021/22 season - although some of these cases are likely to have involved real tickets.

As part of its summer campaign warning of the dangers of counterfeit tickets, City of London Police’s anti-fraud squad Action Fraud has provided five key tips for how to avoid being scammed. These apply to all major events, including football fixtures:

• Only purchase tickets from an officially-run box office, through an official promoter or agent, or via a well-known ticketing website.
• Don’t pay for tickets through a bank transfer, particularly if you’re buying them off someone you don’t know personally. If you feel confident the tickets aren’t counterfeit, you should use a credit card or a payment service like PayPal, as these can allow you to recover money if you get defrauded.
• Make sure you have different passwords for different accounts. For example, your email password should be different from the one you use for your football club’s ticketing site. Action Fraud recommends using three random words to create a strong and memorable password, and to activate two-step verification on your accounts.
• Be on the lookout for unsolicited emails, texts or adverts offering ticket deals that seem to be too good to be true.
• Check whether the organisation you are buying your tickets from is a member of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR). If they are, the firm has signed up to a strict set of standards and you can make a claim against them through STAR’s Alternative Dispute Resolution service.

Payment services provider Takepayments also advises people to look out for Strong Customer Authentication-compliance - a sure sign that the ticketing website is legitimate and secure. Such websites will ask for two levels of authorisation when you make a purchase with them - for example, they may ask for a one-time passcode (OTP) or for you to go into your banking app to confirm a payment.