Assahafa.com
As the 35th Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) kicks off across Morocco, the excitement of a continental showpiece is being overshadowed by a sophisticated and ruthless secondary ticketing market.
What was designed to be the most accessible and digitally secure tournament in African football history has rapidly devolved into a high-stakes economic battleground, leaving ordinary fans priced out of the stadiums.
The official numbers released by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Local Organizing Committee painted a picture of affordability.
To fill the seats and democratize access, Category 3 tickets were priced at a modest MAD 100 ($10), with premium seats for group matches capped at MAD 400 ($40).
However, a review of data from resale platforms and local marketplaces reveals a starkly different reality. Just hours after the official portal crashed due to overwhelming traffic, tickets for high-profile matches began appearing on the secondary market with markups ranging from 300% to over 2,500%.
The steepest inflation surrounds the opening match between Morocco and Comoros, with Category 1 tickets rising from an official MAD 500 ($50) to over MAD 4,000 ($400) on unverified channels — well above Morocco’s minimum monthly wage of MAD 3,000 ($300).
This “host nation premium” has turned stadium access into a luxury, sidelining local fans who traditionally drive the tournament’s atmosphere, a remark made by many fans on social media after the tournament’s opener.
The issue is compounded by the “receipt scam,” a rampant fraud mechanism where sellers trade screenshots of payment confirmations rather than actual tickets.
Since the digital tickets are linked to the buyer’s phone app, these PDF receipts are functionally worthless, yet they continue to change hands for MAD 600 to MAD 1,200 ($60 to $120) among desperate supporters fearing they will miss out on a historic event.
A digital fortress breached by demand
The catalyst for this market distortion is the “Yalla” Fan ID application, the very technology that was meant to prevent it. The system was intended to create a closed loop where every ticket is biometrically linked to a specific user’s passport or national ID.
In theory, this would render a scalped ticket useless at the turnstile. In practice, widespread technical glitches — specifically the app freezing during NFC passport scans — forced security protocols to be relaxed.
Reports from the ground suggest that gate checks have often bypassed biometric verification in favor of simple QR scanning to prevent crowd crushes, a loophole that works in favor of the grey market.
International platforms have also played a significant role in setting a global “floor price” for tickets. Data from sites like SeatPick and SportsEvents365 shows that, regardless of the match quality, ticket prices rarely dip below $140 (MAD 1,400) for international buyers.
The discrepancy is stark: a standard group stage match between Nigeria and Tunisia, officially priced at roughly $30 (MAD 300), is listing for more than $200 (MAD 2000), while premium fixtures involving Morocco against Mali have skyrocketed to $263 (MAD 2,600).
This pricing structure suggests a coordinated effort to target the international diaspora, who are perceived to have higher purchasing power.
Although the General Terms of Sale explicitly mandate that tickets be resold exclusively through an official CAF platform pending a published activation schedule, this tool remains inaccessible, effectively making the black market the default liquidity provider by necessity.
As the tournament approaches the knockout stages, experts predict that prices for scalped tickets to the Final could exceed MAD 10,000, turning the “People’s Cup” into an exclusive corporate event.
The warning signs have triggered a law-enforcement response, with Moroccan police opening a judicial investigation into illegal AFCON ticket sales and arresting eight suspects across multiple cities.
Source: Morocco word news
