BACKGROUND
Away day digital tickets were used for the first time for Fulham Football Club’s Premier League away fixture at Turf Moor against Burnley on Saturday 13 December 2025. Since then, the Trust have been working closely with the Club to monitor how the use of this technology is progressing.
This exercise has now been extended to review the whole away matchday experience and this paper is designed to give members more information as well as help identify the resources available. We are pleased that the Club have agreed to our suggestions to improve awareness and the away matchday experience.
The Trust is clear that the key to a good supporter experience is timely communication from the Club, plus a signposted route to resolve any problems for individual supporters.
The Club provides an exemption to digital ticketing for supporters who are disabled, elderly, without a smartphone or have protected characteristics. The exemption qualifies eligible supporters for a paper ticket. These tickets can be requested ahead of each fixture from the Fulham Football Club Ticket Office. The Trust and the Club are committed to working closely with the Fulham Disabled Supporters’ Association to ensure that all fixtures – whether they are played at Craven Cottage or at an away ground – are accessible to all.
DIGITAL TICKETS
As with home digital tickets, the process works well for most. The issues that have arisen tend to relate to lack of system familiarity by the user when making downloads and forwarding tickets to others. Most of these problems relate to user familiarity with the download process.
The Club’s website contains a number of articles that can help address regular queries. Please click here for the Club’s help page. There is also an FAQ page on digital ticketing.
Away digital tickets are distributed using a “batch” processing method and should be received between 48-72 hours before the scheduled game. Supporters who have not received their ticket by this time should check the Club website for any updates first, before then contacting the Ticket Office.
On matchdays the Fulham Ticket Office is available to support fans and can be contacted by email at tickets@fulhamfc.com from two hours prior to kick off. Staff should be able to resolve any issues which do not require physical intervention by home club staff.
In the event of a complete system failure the home club will implement their own processes to enable supporters’ entry to the stadium (for example, a manual entry process may be applied).
Fulham are one of the early adopters of home digital ticketing, now being in our second season. Only recently have digital tickets started to be used for away games, however from next season it will be a Premier League requirement that a minimum of 70% of total admissions are by way of digital technology at each match.
The use of digital ticketing, both home and away, helps the Club in identifying and taking action where tickets are not being used properly. While there is still some way to go in the fight against fraud and away fans in home areas, digital ticketing has led to an increase in the number of fraudulent accounts being blocked. This is an ongoing process.
AWAY MATCH TICKETS
Away match tickets are purchased using the Club’s ticketing system. Paper tickets are available for those who qualify for home card or paper tickets.
Away paper tickets can only be purchased by contacting the Ticket Office by telephone or in person. Away paper tickets are distributed as soon as they are received from the home club. Anyone who has not received their paper ticket 72 hours before kick-off should check the Club website for any updates and then contact the Ticket Office.
Anyone requiring tickets in a wheelchair or ambulant disabled area should also contact the Fulham FC Ticket Office.
On occasions it will be necessary for physical tickets to be collected at away grounds. Each Club we visit will either have a dedicated Away Ticket Office or will have made provision for away supporters to collect from an identified place.
Fans intending to travel away should look to secure their tickets as soon as possible once they go on sale. Some games will sell out very quickly.
Under Premier League rules the home club are entitled to ask for away club confirmation of how much of their allocation they wish to take up 10 working days before the fixture. Not all home clubs enforce this requirement. It also needs to be borne in mind that whatever number of tickets Fulham agree to take they have to pay for, whether they sell them or not.
When a home Club enforce the 10 working-day rule, Fulham will have to make a commercial decision on how many tickets they wish to take based on sales to date and past experience for the fixture in question.
We have asked the Club to consider issuing reminders as tickets either move close to sell out or a decision day is approaching under the 10 working-day rule. The message is: “Buy early to avoid disappointment.”
Supporters wishing to take younger fans to away games should purchase their tickets as early as possible if they wish to sit nearer the front or in non-standing areas.
MATCHDAY
On matchday Fulham will have a least one member of the Club’s Supporter Relations Team on duty at away fixtures. This is in addition to any coach stewards whose pre-match responsibilities end when coaches arrive at the away ground.
The Club will publish in the pre-match information details of the Supporter Services Representative(s) on duty and their responsibilities on match-day. The Supporter Relations Representative(s) will be at the away fan turnstiles from opening and be clearly visible.
We encourage travelling fans to seek the Supporter Services Representative if they have a problem. If issues are unable to be resolved immediately a path to resolution will be sought.
The Trust hope that this summary provides clarity on the away day match experience expectations and what to do in the event of difficulties.