How I acquired into the Champions League last WITHOUT a ticket

It was the hottest ticket in town. The face value of an official UEFA Champions League final ticket last weekend ranged from £60 to £610 but online and on the black market, they were selling for thousands of pounds.

A quick scroll through Live Football Tickets – a popular secondary ticket website – in the hours before kick-off showed a going rate of around £4,000 and these were for upper-tier seats. Some of the lower-tier seats were selling for close to £10,000.

Throughout the day in central London, I met numerous fans who had paid four-figure sums for a ticket. With thousands of Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid supporters in town, the threat of ticketless fans trying to get into the stadium was a genuine concern and as such, the FA announced in the days leading up to the clash that they had taken relevant extra security measures in the hope of avoiding the scenes that marred the Euro 2020 final when 2,000 ticketless fans gained entry into Wembley.

Both sets of supporters were assured that lessons had been learned from the event, which The Baroness Casey Review – an FA commissioned review – described as a day of ‘national shame’. It was the biggest security operation in the stadium’s history with an 18-month operation undertaken to ensure the final passed off without incident, and over 2,400 stewards were deployed on the day. After the events of the two previous Champions League finals in Paris in 2022 and Istanbul in 2023, there was undoubtedly an extra focus on UEFA and London too.

I arrive at Wembley two hours before kick-off and instantly from the bottom of the Olympic steps which meet you as you walk out of Wembley Park Station and towards the stadium, the extra security presence is clear. 

More than £5million has been pumped into security provisions to create a ‘ring of steel’ around the perimeter and Mail Sport are here to investigate whether these measures have worked and whether it is still possible to get into the ground without a valid ticket.

A Mail Sport investigation in 2022 revealed how stewards at Wembley were offered bribes by ticketless fans and how some stewards indicated they were prepared to accept these offers. After the 2021 final, fans spoke of how they had seen stewards taking cash to let people past the checks.

The Casey Report specifies claims that stewards and other staff at Wembley took bribes in order to let people into the stadium, with reports suggesting that a steward told a ticketless fan to ‘put the money in my pocket as I’m patting you down’ and another individual was quoted as saying they saw a steward with ‘his pockets full of money’.

The report said: ‘These claims are inevitably difficult to examine since bribery is illegal and there is no incentive for those involved to incriminate themselves… however, there was a perception from a substantial number of ticket-holders who responded to the survey that bribes were being offered and taken on a large scale.’

For the Champions League final, all the tickets are digital, just like for the FA Cup and Championship play-off finals the weekend before. I spoke to supporters of both Leeds United and Manchester United who reveal how they ‘jibbed in’ and detail the various methods from tailgating and double-clicking (where two people scan through on one ticket) to paying cash to stewards at the turnstiles who then let them in or turn a blind eye.

‘I know a guy who saw a few guys pay a steward £150 and he told the steward I’ve got a video of you so let me in or else I’ll report you,’ reads one message from a United fan who was at Wembley, where England take on Iceland on Friday in a pre-Euros friendly.

A quick search on X of the term ‘Wembley jib’ brings up a selection of posts from fans boasting of their successes this year alone. ‘Wembley is the easiest ground to jib that I know of,’ reads one. ‘The Wembley jib is still lightwork,’ reads another.

In plain clothing and no colours of Borussia Dortmund or Real Madrid, I reach the bottom of the Olympic steps and try to get past the first layer of security but that fails when I’m asked to show a valid ticket and I am sent back.

The security seems prepared for people like me yet videos later reveal hundreds of fans storming through this first layer and getting up the steps. I walk around the ground up the North West ramp and find another entrance before Turnstile N where there is still security before the main concourse but nowhere near as heavily manned as on the Olympic steps. 

High perimeter fencing has been installed outside the ground to act as a visual deterrent to fans and though this works for the majority, some find their way past this check which does not require any ticket to be scanned. On my second attempt, I show a screenshot of an old ticket on my phone and walk past without question. 

I see others try their own way of getting through, with some succeeding and some failing but within minutes of arriving at Wembley, I am on the main concourse and already scoping out which of the turnstiles have less security for me to attempt my own ‘jib’.

Once on the main concourse, at each of the 14 lettered gates there are two checks – one to ensure tickets are valid on the UEFA phone app before you approach the turnstile and then another at the actual turnstile before you scan it. Neither are thorough checks but as I circulate the ground, the notable extra police presence at most turnstiles acts as a warning and puts me off. 

I see some fans trying to get in without tickets either getting escorted out or arrested. Metropolitan Police make 53 arrests, the majority for attempts to breach security – a clear demonstration of police learning their lessons from previous incidents.

There are still 90 minutes to kick-off and I am prepared to wait for the crowds to get busier before trying myself. This is when I begin to engage with stewards about the possibility of paying to get in. The first steward I approach says he can’t because it’s too risky for this event, saying that the number of police is three times what they had at the Euros and that security is ‘extra tight’.

I ask if any other stewards may help and he says he doesn’t know anyone. The disabled entrances at the turnstiles have fewer checks so I ask another steward at one and he says there’s too many people at his gate but directs me to another gate where he says I should find someone willing to take cash.

At that entrance, another steward tells me that he will only consider a four-figure sum, mentioning that tickets for the game are selling for way more online and that the money has to be worth it for him in case he loses his job. After trying to bring him down to £100 and failing, he asks me to leave but does not report me.

In fact, no one is yet to report me to the authorities and by now, I’m increasingly confident that it is possible to enter Wembley without a ticket. It’s a matter of when, rather than if. Given the masses of people around the stadium, it’s simple to communicate with stewards without causing suspicion and at the next entrance, a steward asks me how much I have when I ask if I can pay to get in.

I say £100 in cash and he tells me to come back later when it’s busier and he’ll see what he can do. I keep that in mind and head to another entrance. It is 6.45pm, under an hour after I arrived at Wembley, and the fifth steward I ask is keen to do business, without hesitation. 

Through the small window at the disabled entrance, I offer £150 in cash to him – not realising I only have £100 on me – and he accepts, directing me in through the door, pretending to scan my phone while saying ‘Give me the cash’. He takes the notes from my hand without checking the amount and his colleague at the other side of the gate pretends to do a security check.

The deal is done in under a minute and just like that, I’m in Wembley for a Champions League final without a ticket and as a major security risk, without anyone checking what I have on me.

With the majority of the Dortmund end standing throughout the game, there are no concerns for me to find a specific seat to sit in and I stand with them, enjoying the pre-match scenes. Not once does anyone ask to see my ticket.

Embarrassingly for Wembley and UEFA, three pitch invaders delay the game early on but no one is hurt and apart from that, the game passes by without trouble.

There is no repeat of the chaos in Paris when kick-off was delayed by 37 minutes or in Istanbul last year when some fans missed the start. In that alone, it is a step in the right direction for UEFA and an official crowd of 86,212 (the third biggest in Champions League final history) enjoy the spectacle. 

Ahead of the final, Wembley’s director of tournaments & events Chris Bryant said: ‘Between ourselves and UEFA we absolutely have embraced the learnings from Paris in the delivery of this event. That is clear.’ But there are still concerns.

I watch most of the match in the Dortmund end and then walk around to the opposite end to see Real Madrid’s celebrations. As the trophy is presented, I am joined by dozens of other matchday staff who block the stairways to witness the scenes – in contravention of safety rules. 

Once the trophy is presented to Madrid, I walk around to the same entrance where I got in to thank the steward and arrange to send him the remaining £50. He greets me, laughs, asks if I enjoyed the game and before I can speak, reminds me that I didn’t give him what I had offered. I ask for his number to arrange a bank transfer which he gives but he tells me not to worry about sending any more money because I am not the only one he let in. I ask how much he is paid per shift.

He says: ‘nothing, only about £100’ and that by taking my money he has doubled his day rate. Wembley stewards earn £13 per hour. ‘After you, four or five more guys came in. I made a good five bills (£500) today,’ he adds. ‘It’s a Champions League final man – you’ve got to make as much as you can.’

He tells me about other events where with less security, he and others take a lot less money. ‘I do all the events here – football, concerts whatever. If you want to get in, you’ve just got to ask the right people,’ he adds. ‘Sometimes it’s a little 20 quid here and there but loads of us do it.’

Later this month, Taylor Swift will perform three times at Wembley as part of ‘The Eras Tour.’ Tickets on secondary platforms are selling for £500 and he is well aware. Another steward who worked at Wembley for the Euro 2020 final and still does shifts tells Mail Sport that staff are told they will get in serious trouble if they let anyone without tickets in but says that in the five years he has worked at Wembley, he has never heard of anyone losing their jobs.

Given that it would be impractical for the FA to have a permanent stewarding workforce, they use a number of agencies to provide the match-day staff.

The FA, when contacted by Mail Sport, said: ‘All stewards who are employed at Wembley are vetted and checked by our stewarding agencies to the BS 7858 stewarding industry standard. We are passing these allegations, the evidence provided to us, and CCTV footage which should identify the individuals involved to the police.’

Without concrete evidence it is complex to remove rogue operators. When our findings were put to Peter Houghton, director of operations at the Football Safety Officers Association, he told Mail Sport: ‘If these allegations are proven, then it’s a huge concern to everyone in the industry. If people are getting in without checks, that is a serious safety risk. 

‘We know that since the Casey Report, measures have been taken, training has been stepped up and recruitment procedures have been tightened. Ultimately, it is a lot of people to keep a grip on. Approximately 50,000 stewards work in the football industry in the UK each season and as an industry, we know there’s a few rogue elements that need weeding out. 

‘There’s a lot of strides taken since The Baroness Casey Review to get these elements out of football including trying to make stewarding a full time occupation.’

With minimal fuss, the steward that accepts our bribe has earned a fat sum. He tells us how ‘he’ll get a nice taxi home after his shift and treat himself to a good meal.’ A productive day at the office for him – but a real concern for the game.