On September 6, Armenia will host Portugal at Yerevan’s Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in a 2026 World Cup qualifier. Yet the main public debate has not been about the match itself but about how fans can secure tickets.
The FFA opened sales on August 14, but within minutes many supporters said they could not purchase tickets online. Hopes of buying physical tickets at stadium box offices were dashed, as paper tickets are no longer sold. Later, a queuing system was introduced, but fans reported that tickets were already gone by the time it launched.
FFA confirmed that around 4,200 tickets had been reserved in advance — including 1,104 for the Portuguese Football Federation and its fan club, 1,130 for Armenian fan groups FAF and Red Eagles, with others set aside for social groups, staff, referees, clubs, and partners. However, inquiries to orphanages and the Soldiers’ Insurance Fund revealed that they had not received tickets.
Soon after, tickets began appearing on black market resale platforms. Originally priced between 1,000 and 20,000 drams, some were listed for as much as 1 million drams. Hetq’s investigation found that some of these tickets matched sections previously reserved by the FFA. For instance, seats in the Western Tribune, Section 1 Sector 4 — all reserved by the federation — were being resold on Viagogo for 624,000 drams each. Similar cases were recorded in the Eastern Tribune, where 14,000-dram tickets were resold for 375,000 drams.
FFA has not explained how its reserved tickets ended up on the black market. The federation stated it is fighting illegal resale by blocking suspicious online activity and limiting purchases to two tickets per person.
Police also issued a warning, stressing that QR codes for match tickets would only activate on September 6 at 16:00, and any codes offered before then were fake. Despite the warning, resale activity has continued without interruption.
