On Thursday, 2 May, the Euro 2024 ticket portal opened for the final time to allow fans to snap up last-minute tickets for the tournament in Germany. More than 100,000 tickets were up for grabs but as expected, far more than that joined the queue in time for the portal opening at 11:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST).
The way the ticketing system has worked for Euro 2024 has sparked much controversy with UEFA opting for a queue system whereby football fans were given a random position in a queue before a free-for-all commenced where the quickest people were able to snag the most tickets.
The Euro 2024 ticket portal has already let countless people down in the build-up to the tournament and it let thousands more down yesterday for the final time. Fans complained of long wait time, capcha issues and being kicked out of the queue for unexplained reasons.
Euro 2024 ticket portal lets fans down
Among the complaints from football fans, the biggest ones revolved around the technical errors they faced as they joined the queue. While some people have complained about the queuing system itself there is an acceptance that due to demand, there was always going to be disappointment.
However, the technical issues shouldn't be forgiven. Some fans were blocked from queuing altogether for trying to refresh their web browsers while the compulsory Captcha identification test was failing to display numbers for some people which meant they couldn't even enter the portal.
All 51 #EURO2024 games, from the opening match to the final, have been in huge demand. Global interest from fans wishing to attend matches at the finals in Germany has been massive.
More than 100,000 tickets went on sale on https://t.co/baZ1HPFxso today and close to a million… pic.twitter.com/Z50gBuliGM
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) May 2, 2024
Hundreds of fans took to social media to complain about the queue. One posted on X: “How is anyone supposed to get tickets for this tournament, once again the Portal has broken before it opened and just shows a “technical error” every time you reach the queue. Useless.”
Another said: “The ticket sales portal has been an absolute shambles, as usual. Waited hours in a queue to get through to a page to be told that I’m blocked. Second ticket sales window that this has happened to me. Unacceptable for an organisation of your size. Pathetic!”
A third added: “Trying for tickets on the Euro 2024 website. Get through. But the captcha doesn’t show on my device. Have to queue again. Every time something goes wrong.”