Tickets, bots & touts - is Chelsea relationship with fans turning sour?

Fresh from winning the Club World Cup, a triumph in the Europa Conference League, a return to Champions League football and unprecedented investment in the squad, things should be rosy between Chelsea's ownership and supporters.

But one month into the season relations between parts of the fanbase and the club hierarchy have turned sour.

Issues around tickets, particularly the resale of tickets and touting for in-demand matches, are at the heart of the matter.

So what is driving fan frustration, what is the club doing about it and what does it say about the current climate in the Premier League?

One area of frustration is Chelsea's decision to raise Champions League ticket prices.

The Chelsea Supporters' Trust (CST) highlighted that ticket prices for the Benfica match, which started at £66, represent a 77.5% increase on last season's Conference League semi-final against Djurgarden.

It criticised the club's lack of transparency in announcing price increases so late and expressed concern over reduced concessions for seniors and children.

The CST said it was "deeply concerned with the club's handling of ticket sales for upcoming Champions League fixtures".

"Recent decisions have been marked by poor communication, unjustifiable price increases, and a disregard for supporters. The message is clear - stop exploiting our loyalty."

"Decisions like this risk further alienating loyal supporters and threaten the matchday atmosphere that makes Stamford Bridge unique."

Concerns about the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge have been raised by many - including manager Enzo Maresca, who frequently referenced the issue last season.

Maresca's sentiments echo former manager Jose Mourinho's provocative 2014 comment that playing at Stamford Bridge was "like playing inside an empty stadium".

An expanded 500-person singing section is being introduced for Champions League matches this season to help fans rekindle the atmosphere.

When asked their views, multiple fans told BBC Sport that high prices, limited ticket access and touting continue to undermine the matchday experience.

Access to tickets is also difficult for younger supporters, with Chelsea's fanbase averaging about 59 years of age - the oldest in the Premier League.

Mark Meehan, chair of the CST, told the Chelsea FanCast: "I get the mismatch between supply and demand. It has never been harder to get a Chelsea ticket. It's clear something isn't working.

"There's the issue of touting and it is a Premier League wide issue, but it is really a serious issue at Chelsea. Tout gangs infiltrated the ticket exchange last season.

"I'd say up to 2,000 tickets per game at Chelsea are touted. If you make a dent in that then that frees up tickets for young members."

Chelsea recently identified 2,000 ticket purchases for their Champions League four-match bundle that violated rules and have since been cancelled.

The Blues also received 350,000 attempted bot purchases for the opening game of the season.

The club and CST are broadly aligned on policies tackling touts.

Meehan added: "We need supporters in the stadium to email the club, rather than complain on social media, if they see a touted fan in the stadium with the exact seat number to stop it. We need to work with the club on this.

"Ticketing is the single biggest issue impacting Chelsea fans right now."

The cheapest adult ticket for the Benfica match in the Champions League this week was £66 for members and £71 for non-members. By comparison, Arsenal charge a minimum of £78 for their Category A matches, while Tottenham charge £71.

Chelsea sources, when asked by BBC Sport, said their price rises align with English football trends.

They added that fans can access a cheaper rate by purchasing a bundle for all four home matches - against Benfica, Ajax, Barcelona, and Pafos - and noted that the elected fan advisory board, which includes supporters' group members, was consulted before the ticketing policy was announced.

Chelsea are unique in that they have particularly outsized demand for matches amid efforts to expand their 40,000-seater stadium or, indeed, build a new one under the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ownership.

They have roughly 28,000 season ticket holders, between 4,000 and 5,000 tickets available to members and about 3,000 for away supporters - with the rest being available to hospitality, including the dugout club charging (likely a Premier League record) £12,500 for a single seat behind the home and away benches for big matches last season.

There were said to be about 90,000 members in 2024-25 but it is unclear what proportion were touts.

In a report on the wider cost of football last season, Manchester United Supporters' Trust CEO Duncan Drasdo said: "We are all fighting the same fight on ticket prices. Clubs are exploiting loyalty and fans are united in saying enough is enough."

His comments came after 19 of the Premier League's 20 clubs raised their ticket prices before the 2024-25 season, prompting the Football Supporters' Association (FSA) to start a campaign called 'Stop Exploiting Loyalty'.

Tens of thousands of tickets are listed on third-party websites, including Vivid Seats, where Chelsea owner Boehly is a director.

A report from the CST, issued this week into ugly scenes at the Conference League semi-final second leg against Djurgarden last season, found safety had been "repeatedly compromised" at the match.

It found that thousands of supporters of the Swedish side had bought tickets from touts or resale websites, leading to issues of overcrowding as well as an inadequate response from police and stewards.

Fans suggested that, as the first leg had been won 4-1 by Chelsea, more tickets were available on the black market as interest was lower among home fans.

The report described issues on the night as "the most serious breach of stadium security in recent memory".

Chelsea issued a statement in the matchday programme to explain their response, which read: "In order to establish how this came to pass, the club committed to and has conducted a full and independent review into all ticketing processes.

"The findings have been shared with the fan advisory board and we have been in touch directly with those affected on the night.

"There were multiple contributing factors to the events that took place which impacted our usual processes across ticketing, security and matchday operations.

"The learnings from this review will be implemented to ensure that, as far as possible, this does not happen again."