How to get football tickets abroad: a complete guide (2026)

It is harder than you think

Here is what nobody tells you before your first football trip abroad: buying a ticket is often the hardest part. Not the flights, not the accommodation, not navigating a foreign city on a Tuesday night. The ticket.

The reason is simple. Most European football clubs sell the majority of their tickets to members and season ticket holders before a single seat reaches general sale. Some clubs never reach general sale at all for popular fixtures. Others sell out in minutes. A few require you to have attended a previous match — which is obviously impossible if you have never been.

This is not a reason to give up. It is a reason to plan properly. Tens of thousands of football tourists attend matches across Europe every week, and they all got tickets somehow. This guide covers every method that works, league by league, so you can stop refreshing club websites at 3am and start planning with confidence.

Always start with the official club website

Before you try anything else, go to the club's official site and read their ticketing page. Not just the "buy tickets" button — the full page, including the FAQ, membership information, and any section labelled "visiting fans" or "international supporters."

What you are looking for:

• When tickets go on sale. Most clubs release tickets in waves: season ticket holders first, then members, then general sale. The dates are usually published weeks in advance.
• Whether general sale exists. For some fixtures, it does not. If general sale is not mentioned, you will need a membership or a hospitality package.
• Membership requirements. Many clubs offer a basic membership (sometimes called a "supporter card" or "fan card") that costs between five and thirty pounds and gives you access to the member sale window. This is often the cheapest and simplest route.
• Away section rules. If you want to sit with the away fans, different rules apply — usually managed by the away club, not the home club.

The official site is always your first port of call. Everything else is a fallback.

League-by-league breakdown

Premier League — the hardest ticket in football

The Premier League is the most difficult top-flight league in Europe for casual ticket buyers. Almost every club sells out every home match. Season ticket waiting lists at clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United stretch into the tens of thousands.

What works:

• Club membership. Almost every Premier League club offers an official membership (typically fifteen to forty pounds per season) that grants access to the member ticket sale. This is your best option. Buy the membership months in advance and set a calendar reminder for the sale date.
• Hospitality packages. Expensive (one hundred to three hundred pounds per person) but virtually guaranteed for any fixture. Every club sells hospitality through their official site. If budget is not the primary concern, this is the path of least resistance.
• Ticket exchange and resale. Most clubs run an official resale platform where season ticket holders can list tickets they cannot use. Check this regularly in the week before the match — tickets appear and disappear quickly.
• Less popular fixtures. A midweek match against a lower-table side is far easier to get into than a Saturday derby. If your goal is to visit the ground, be flexible about the opponent.

What to avoid: Third-party resale sites charging three to five times face value for Premier League tickets. You will pay a fortune and may be refused entry if the club detects resold tickets. For a full breakdown of every ground, see the Premier League stadium guide.

La Liga — easier than you expect

La Liga is significantly more accessible than the Premier League for visiting fans. General sale is common, especially for mid-table and lower-table fixtures.

What works:

• Official club websites. Real Madrid and Barcelona both sell tickets online to the general public for most league matches. Barcelona's new Spotify Camp Nou has increased capacity, which has made tickets easier to get than the old ground. Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu sells out the biggest fixtures but has general sale availability for most others.
• Club apps. Both Madrid and Barcelona have dedicated apps for ticket purchasing. Download them before you travel.
• Smaller clubs. Outside the big two, La Liga tickets are straightforward. Clubs like Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao, and Real Betis have passionate fanbases but rarely sell out for non-derby matches. Buying on the day at the stadium is often possible.

Prices: Expect twenty to sixty euros for a standard league match. Derbies and El Clasico are significantly more. See the La Liga stadium guide for ground-by-ground advice.

Serie A — usually available

Serie A is one of the easier top-flight leagues for ticket access. Italian stadiums are large, and many clubs do not fill them for every match. There are exceptions — the Milan derby, Juventus-Napoli, Roma-Lazio — but for regular fixtures, tickets are widely available.

What works:

• Official club sites and authorised resellers. Most Serie A clubs sell through their own website or through a ticketing partner like Vivaticket or Ticketone.
• Buy in advance online. Italian stadium box offices can be disorganised, and buying on the day is not always straightforward. Online purchase in advance is strongly recommended.
• Bring ID. Italian football requires ID matching for many fixtures. The name on the ticket must match your identification. Do not buy from unofficial resellers — if the name does not match, you will not get in.

Prices: Fifteen to fifty euros for most matches. The Serie A stadium guide has detailed advice for every ground.

Bundesliga — cheap but membership matters

The Bundesliga offers the best value in European football. Standing tickets at major clubs cost ten to twenty euros. The atmosphere is unmatched. The catch: many clubs have membership-based ticketing systems that make casual purchasing difficult for the biggest fixtures.

What works:

• Membership. Clubs like Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Eintracht Frankfurt sell primarily through membership. A basic membership costs twenty to sixty euros per year and opens the ticket sale window.
• Ticket exchange. Dortmund's official Ticketborse (ticket exchange) is the best way for non-members to get tickets. Season ticket holders list matches they cannot attend, and you buy at face value.
• Smaller clubs. Union Berlin, Freiburg, Augsburg — tickets at smaller Bundesliga clubs are almost always available on general sale.
• 2. Bundesliga. If your goal is the atmosphere rather than a specific club, the second division offers incredible value. Clubs like Koln, Hamburg, and Schalke (depending on the season) have massive fanbases and cheap tickets.

Prices: Ten to thirty euros for most matches, including standing. See the Bundesliga guide for details.

Ligue 1 — generally easy

Ligue 1 is the most accessible of the top five leagues for ticket buyers. Outside of Paris Saint-Germain, most clubs have readily available tickets on general sale.

What works:

• Official club sites. Straightforward online purchasing for most clubs.
• PSG. The exception. The Parc des Princes sells out regularly, and tickets for big matches require either membership or hospitality. For a mid-table league fixture, general sale is sometimes available but sells quickly.
• The best value. Clubs like Lens, Saint-Etienne, and Marseille offer extraordinary atmospheres at prices between ten and twenty euros. If you want the best pound-for-pound matchday experience in France, skip Paris and go to Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens.

Prices: Eight to thirty euros for most matches. PSG is more. See the Ligue 1 guide.

Third-party resellers

When official channels are sold out, resellers become tempting. Here is what you need to know.

Legitimate resellers

• StubHub. The largest secondary ticket marketplace. Prices are above face value — often significantly — but the tickets are generally legitimate. StubHub offers a guarantee that you will receive valid tickets or a refund. It is an option of last resort, not a first choice.
• LiveFootballTickets. A long-standing reseller with a reasonable reputation for European football. Prices are marked up but usually less extreme than StubHub for European matches.
• Viagogo. Controversial. Prices are high, the platform has faced regulatory action in multiple countries, and customer service complaints are common. Use with caution and only if other options are exhausted.

What to watch out for

• Inflated prices. Resellers charge a premium. A forty-pound ticket might cost one hundred and twenty pounds on a resale platform. Decide in advance what the match is worth to you.
• Name-matching rules. In Italy, France, and increasingly across Europe, tickets are tied to the buyer's name. If the name on a resold ticket does not match your ID, you may be turned away at the gate with no recourse.
• Scam sites. If a site you have never heard of appears at the top of a Google search for "[club name] tickets," be extremely cautious. Check reviews, look for a physical address and customer service number, and pay by credit card for chargeback protection.

The honest recommendation

Try the official route first. Buy a club membership if needed — it is almost always cheaper than a single resale ticket. Use resellers only when the official channels are genuinely sold out and you have no alternative.

Tips that actually help

Buy early. For big matches, "early" means weeks or months in advance. For most European league matches, a week ahead is usually sufficient. Set calendar reminders for sale dates.

Check club social media. Many clubs announce ticket availability, late releases, and returned tickets on their Twitter/X and Instagram accounts before updating the main website. Follow the club's official account in the weeks before your trip.

Consider less popular matches. A Sunday afternoon fixture against a mid-table team is far easier to attend than a Saturday evening derby. If your goal is to visit the stadium and experience the atmosphere, the opponent matters less than you think. The ground is the same. The fans are the same. The pies are the same.

Hospitality is not always extravagant. Some clubs offer basic hospitality packages (a seat, a meal, and a programme) for eighty to one hundred pounds — not cheap, but not the corporate excess you might imagine. For a once-in-a-lifetime visit to a ground you have always wanted to see, it can be worth it.

Away sections are a different system. If you want to sit with the travelling supporters, tickets are almost always sold through the away club, not the home club. This usually requires membership of the away club and sometimes a history of attending previous away matches. For a first visit, the home sections are easier.

Learn the local system. Every country has quirks. In Germany, you might need a Vereinsmitgliedschaft (club membership). In Spain, the socio system at Barcelona means some tickets are only available to members. In the Netherlands, a club card (clubkaart) is often required. Research the specific club's system before assuming the process is the same as at home.

Download the club app. Many European clubs now sell tickets exclusively or primarily through their mobile app. Download it before you travel, create an account, and add a payment method so you are ready when tickets go on sale.

Plan your trip around the fixtures

The biggest mistake football tourists make is booking flights and hotels before checking whether there is actually a match on. Football schedules shift constantly — broadcasters move matches to different days and kick-off times, sometimes with only two weeks' notice.

The Football Travel Planner on Footbeen lets you search fixtures by date and city, so you can see exactly which matches are happening when you plan to be somewhere. Build the trip around the football, not the other way around.

Once you are there, log every match with Footbeen — free on iOS and Android. One tap to record the fixture, and every stadium you visit lights up on your personal map. Over time, your map becomes the story of everywhere football has taken you.

Keep reading

• What happens when you start tracking every match you attend
• Strava for football: why groundhopping deserves its own app
• European groundhopping: 10 weekend routes with 2+ stadiums per trip
• Is Futbology free? What you get (and what costs extra)