Rip-off merchants

Now I remember from previous attempts to get a ticket for the champions league final, or to be more honest, drooling online and not being in any sort of financial position to actually try and purchase a ticket, that the Uefa website sells a few thousand tickets for the final directly to the public. I remember it being something like March 1st and set reminders in my phone to keep checking the website, which I do periodically.

Then this appears:

Uefa defends high price of attending Champions League final at Wembley

• Tickets for most expensive final ever start at £150 plus booking
• 'Compared to other events we don't think the final is overpriced'

• Owen Gibson
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011 20.43 GMT






Uefa has been forced to defend the high price of attending the Champions League final at Wembley on 28 May, admitting it would be the most expensive ever with the cheapest tickets on general sale costing £176 each.

Some 11,000 tickets will go on sale to the general public costing £300, £225 and £150 plus a £26 "administration fee". An allocation of 50,000 tickets which will be reserved for fans of the two finalists will include "category four" tickets at £80 each, according to Uefa.

The cost of Champions League final tickets has rocketed since Manchester United played Barcelona in Rome 2009. The category three tickets have almost doubled since then, when they cost £80.

The Uefa director of competitions Giorgio Marchetti insisted the prices were based on the market rate and compared with those for the World Cup final.