How to get Premier League match tickets that don't suck

A football tourist's guide, compiled by a frequent flyer.

If you’ve been to a Premier League match as a tourist, you’ll know the fraught process of trying to secure a match ticket, particularly at the older grounds with their idiosyncratic designs. If you’ve never had the pleasure, I hope you will soon, and I hope this guide will spare you some headaches and heartache along the way.

Because I’ve had a few of the former, and it’s cost me a pretty penny to avoid the latter. Just this past week, while visiting three stadiums in London on a reporting trip, I had to re-list some tickets that turned out to be disastrously located¹, take a loss on what I paid, and secure a better seat at added expense.

Here’s your chance to learn from my mistakes.

The first thing to consider is that there are roughly two sets of stadiums across Europe: the classic old grounds, and the modern post-millennium bowls.

With the new breed of stadiums built after 2000, you’re mostly looking at state-of-the-art design, at least according to one key criterion: No matter where you sit, you’ll likely have a clear view of the pitch. Tottenham Hotspur’s home is the foremost example of this, but it’s also true of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and plenty of others. Even some old grounds that have been cleverly renovated over the years might qualify, like Liverpool’s Anfield.²

But in many of the old grounds, some of which date to the late 1800s, that is most assuredly not the case. Within these magic places, which were built in patchwork fashion without the full benefits of modern engineering³, you’ll have to contend with a true scourge on your good time: Obstructed Views. The exact definition of what constitutes a seat with an Obstructed View varies. As we shall see, things can get contentious, deceptive, and highly disappointing.

But first, let’s run through the three basic ways you can secure a ticket to a Premier League match, assuming you don’t have a friend who’s a season ticket holder who is kind enough to bring you along.

These methods have varying levels of approval from the league itself and its constituent clubs, and The Football Weekend of course does not endorse any method of acquiring tickets that breaches league or club policies. If you’re here to complain about tourists ruining match atmospheres, the Premier League, or football in general, please leave your comment down below to boost this post in the Substack algorithm.

That said, here are the three ways …

1. THROUGH THE CLUB

This is the safest way to get a ticket — if possible. That’s a big “if,” because at places like the Emirates Stadium, it’s very difficult to get one under any circumstances, even if you’re a member.

Most clubs have tiers of membership, usually starting at the lowest level with the club’s primary color (Red, in Arsenal’s case), then Silver, then Gold. The higher up you go, the more priority you have to get tickets when they become available. But you can’t always just buy your way into top-tier membership immediately, and the lower tiers might not be much use.

Membership should at least get you onto the club’s internal ticket exchange, where you could buy tickets off another member who can’t make it to that particular match, though there can also be restrictions based on tiers. Crystal Palace has an International Membership that purportedly makes it easier to get to Selhurst Park for a one-off trip, so check if there’s something like that available. In some cases, like Fulham (Craven Cottage), you can find seats in at least one stand (the Riverside) without joining up as a member.

Unless you’ve got a serious preference for where you’d like to sit, going through the club is a very good option because you’ll get an exact seat assignment. You’ll know the row and seat number, and you can look things up on A View From My Seat to make sure they’re satisfactory.

2. THROUGH OFFICIAL RESALE PARTNERS

Some clubs list third-party companies that you can turn to for tickets when they’re unavailable through the club itself. Maybe you don’t want to become a member, or maybe you became one and still couldn’t find a ticket.

Here are some of the firms I’ve seen listed:

• Champions Travel

• Go Sport Travel

• Travel Connection

• P1 Hospitality

• Box Office Events

To be transparent with you, I have never actually bought tickets this way.

From what I’ve observed, they are more expensive than what you’d get from the club directly, and they sometimes include random add-ins like Uber vouchers or tours of London. If anyone reading has used this route, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you get an exact seat assignment using this method. You buy a package, which might list the section of the ground you will be seated in.

As we are about to see, that is a key distinction. It very much matters where within the stand you’re sitting, particularly in the grand old stadiums. But this is the second-safest way to get a guaranteed seat in the ground for the match: If you buy one of these, you should be there for kickoff.

3. THROUGH STUBHUB OR LFT

For some of us, just being there is not enough. Particularly because I’m often working when I go to these games, I need to be in a place with proper atmosphere and a good view — not just of the action on the pitch, but of other interesting areas of the ground. When the club route fails and you’re unimpressed by the third-party resellers above, there are the very third-party resellers.

This is the most perilous way to get tickets, and it isn’t cheap. But done right, you’ll be there in a prime seat in the best part of the ground.

The two main options are Stubhub.ie — not Stubhub.com — and LiveFootballTickets.com. They operate in a way with which you’re probably familiar: Someone who bought the tickets is reselling them to you, and the platform they’re using will take a cut in the form of (significant) fees.

There are two factors that make this method perilous:

1. It’s the most removed from official channels, and there’s the greatest chance the tickets will not be delivered to you as promised. Both these platforms pledge to get you your money back if this happens, but that’s small comfort if you’ve paid for flights and hotels and all the rest. Sometimes, tickets are not delivered until 24 hours before kickoff.

2. There are few rules about how the tickets are listed and what details the seller must include. The row might be listed as “EVERTON FANS” or “ROW EFC.” The exact seat number, in my experience, is rarely listed.

This point #2 is where things get really thorny, particularly with regard to the older grounds. With the new stadiums, you might pay good money for a seat in Section X and find out when the tickets are delivered that you’re at the back of Section X. But you’ll still see pretty well across the pitch. If you’re at the back of Section X in an old stadium, though, it could ruin your whole day.

I’ve been to some classic haunts of the English game: Goodison Park, Craven Cottage, Selhurst Park. In each of these, and in many others across the land, a significant number of seats are officially labeled “Obstructed View” or “Restricted View” by the club. They are sold at a discount at the (physical or digital) box office, because the seat in question is behind a pole or pillar or other major obstruction.

These are clearly labeled on the two resale sites above as Obstructed or Restricted View, even if they don’t list a row or seat number, so you’ll have some idea of what you’re getting yourself into. But there are other seats listed as Unobstructed on the resale sites that make a mockery of the term. If you’re at the back of the Arthur Wait Stand at Selhurst Park, for instance — say, Row 48 — you might have an Unrestricted View ticket that grants you a clear view of about 30% of the stadium. The rest is an overhanging roof. When folks in front of you stand up during a particularly exciting moment, that percentage may well drop to zero.

When I went to Goodison, this letterbox experience was a very charming note for the story. I loved it. But I did not want the same at Selhurst Park last week — not that I succeeded. After much deliberation, I went for two tickets that were more expensive than others in Block W of the Arthur Wait Stand. My hope was that by shelling out a bit more, I’d get better tickets. They were marked “Unrestricted View,” but the row was not listed.

When the tickets were delivered, they were marked Row 48. I looked them up on A View From My Seat and promptly sent a politely infuriated email to LiveFootballTickets. A representative responded, in a tone that indicated this happens all the time, that their terms and conditions clearly state that a seat is only considered Obstructed if it’s listed as such by the club, and that there are plenty of officially Unobstructed seats that may be located behind obstructions. Like an ancient overhanging roof.

There was simply nothing they could do, the rep explained, and I ultimately folded and re-listed the tickets. I ate the cost difference between what I paid and what the tickets resold for a few days later.

This experience crystalized my view on Premier League ticket-hunting: Never, ever buy a seat listed without a specific row attached. You’ll likely have to pay more than you would for other tickets listed, but it’s worth it. Or, if you’re willing to risk the letterbox view, you should pay the least amount possible for a ticket in “Row CPFC” or whatever. It’s essentially a lotto ticket.

So that’s the guide:

1. Look for tickets through the official club website.

2. Consider looking via the official resale partners.

3. If you go through Stubhub or LiveFootballTickets, only buy tickets that have a row listed.

Of course, the decision on which stand to sit in at each stadium is a whole ‘nother story. I can tackle that one in a future installment if this one was helpful. In the meantime, happy hunting.

1. Yes, I did pawn off some bad tickets on some other poor schmuck. It’s dog-eat-dog out there.

2. Liverpudlians, correct me if I’m wrong: Are there any Obstructed View seats at Anfield?

3. Innovations like cantilevered stands have reduced the need for as many supporting pillars and the like.