Tickets Reserved by the HFFF Sold at Exorbitant Prices on the Black Market

Tickets reserved by the Football Federation of Armenia (HFFF) for the Armenia-Portugal match have surfaced on the black market, selling at prices hundreds of times higher than their original cost, according to Hetq.

The match is scheduled for September 6 at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium as part of the qualification round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Research into the ticket purchasing site of the HFFF revealed that a portion of the tickets had been reserved by the federation. The media outlet sent a written inquiry to the HFFF to clarify the purpose of these reservations.

Approximately 4,200 tickets had been reserved for the Armenia-Portugal match, of which 1,104 were intended for the Portuguese Football Federation and their fan club. Another 1,130 tickets were reserved for the FAF and Red Eagles fan movements. The remaining tickets were reserved for various social groups (such as veterans and orphanages), HFFF staff, the stadium, and employees of the HFFF Technical Center/Football Academy, coaching staff of different age teams of Armenia, referees, delegates, instructors, and all professional clubs, as well as the federation's partners, according to the federation's response to the inquiry.

The media contacted orphanages to determine whether tickets for the Armenia-Portugal football match had been distributed to them, only to find out that none had been provided. A similar inquiry was made to the National Foundation for the Protection of Soldiers, and again the answer was negative.

Meanwhile, hours after tickets went on sale on the HFFF's site, tickets began appearing on black market platforms. If the federation was selling tickets for 1,000-20,000 AMD, resellers were pricing them at over 1 million AMD in some cases.

Comparing tickets listed on resale platforms with those reserved by the HFFF shows that some of these tickets ended up with resellers. For example, all seats in Section 1, Sector 4 of the Western Tribune had been reserved by the HFFF. As of September 1, tickets for that same section were selling for 624,000 AMD on viagogo.com, despite the original price on the HFFF site being 14,000-20,000 AMD. There were two adjacent seats available. A similar situation was also reported in Section 2, Sector 6 of the Eastern Tribune, where tickets were priced at 375,000 AMD on the resale site compared to 14,000 AMD on the HFFF site.

Hetq did not receive a response from the HFFF regarding how tickets reserved by the federation ended up on the black market at such inflated prices.

The HFFF stated that they are actively fighting against ticket reselling in the black market, both now and at all times, within their means and capacity. During this period, hundreds of individuals using foreign passports but the same IP have been blocked from accessing tickets. Each fan has been allowed to purchase a maximum of two tickets for the match against Portugal to prevent any individual from buying multiple tickets for resale.