Premier League clubs Manchester City and Arsenal have banned and cancelled fan accounts for ticket touting.
The defending champions banned the accounts of 165 supporters following an investigation that was launched after reporters of away fans in home areas for games against Feyenoord, Manchester United, and Real Madrid.
As a result, they received the ban for touting while 354 were suspended and 223 are being “closely monitored”.
Manchester City has around 37,000 season-ticket holders, and fans are allowed to transfer tickets to other supporters if they cannot attend a match,
The club states that, on average, a home league game sees 15 per cent of season-ticket holders transfer their ticket to a friend or family member while 10 per cent are listed on the official ticket exchange and eight per cent do not attend.
Meanwhile, Arsenal has cancelled a staggering 26,156 accounts this season that have attempted to obtain tickets in unauthorised ways.
The club’s ballot system for tickets also helps to identify illegal ticket touting and bot activity.
“We continue to ramp up our action against ticket touting to protect honest match-going supporters, and to do everything we can to ensure tickets are going into the hands of paying members,” Arsenal said in a statement.