Premier League tickets on black market: Key questions answered

All these websites describe themselves as “ticket marketplaces”, supposedly connecting buyers with sellers.

Only Ticombo, regularly displays who those sellers are.

And one seller – NGO Events – has more than 14,000 listings on the site.

But company records show NGO Events is not an independent trader. It is run by Thomas Senge, the managing director of Ticombo Switzerland.

Senge and Ticombo’s chief executive Atle Barlaup also both used to sit on the board of WorldTix, another big seller on Ticombo.

All three companies appear to be linked and are registered in the same small Swiss town of Engelberg.

Ticombo told us NGO Events and WorldTix are “partners of Ticombo” but adhere to “the same obligations” as other traders.

Barlaup is a familiar name in the world of touting.

In 2011, he admitted to BBC Panorama that he had paid Fifa vice-president Jack Warner 242,000 euros in cash for 820 World Cup tickets.

Ticombo said Barlaup spoke to BBC Panorama to “highlight corruption within Fifa”.

Football Ticket Net too has a chequered past.

They are currently registered in Estonia but their shareholders are from Israel.

Under a previous parent company – owned by one of the current shareholders – they were fined 600,000 euros by a French court for infringing Uefa’s trademarks and selling tickets for European finals.

Live Football Tickets, Seatsnet and Football Ticket Net did not respond to our requests for comment.