"Hetq" reveals Armenia-Portugal Ticket Scandal

"Hetq" sought answers to numerous unanswered questions related to ticket sales. According to the publication, minutes after the start of sales, football fans began to sound the alarm that they could not buy tickets.

A study of the FFA's ticket purchase website reveals that a portion of the tickets had been pre-booked by the federation. According to the official response, "about 4,200 tickets were reserved for the Armenia-Portugal match, of which 1,104 were intended for the Portuguese Football Federation and their fan club. 1,130 tickets were reserved for the FAF and Red Eagles fan movements.

The other tickets were reserved for various social groups (disabled soldiers, orphanages), FFA staff, the Republican Stadium and FFA Technical Center/Football Academy staff, coaching staffs of various age-group national teams of Armenia, FFA referees, delegates, instructors, all professional clubs, as well as FFA partners."

"Hetq" called orphanages to find out if they were provided with tickets for the Armenia-Portugal football match. It turned out they were not. We also addressed the same question to the Military Insurance Fund, and the answer was again negative.

Instead, tickets for the game appeared on the black market almost immediately, at prices up to 1 million drams. The Federation did not comment on how such a large number of tickets ended up in the hands of resellers. They noted that they had taken steps to prevent it.

We should recall that even the police have addressed the issue, warning not to buy tickets from resellers, but the sales are proceeding smoothly.