Copa del Rey tickets: prices, information and news

What the DFB Cup is in German professional football, the Copa del Rey de Fútbol is in Spain. Organised by the Spanish FA RFEF, the Copa del Rey is the second biggest and most important title for La Liga teams alongside the championship – and an even bigger potential success for teams in Spain’s second and third divisions.

There are indeed surprises in the cup competition. In the first division, the triumvirate of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona have dominated for years. However, teams such as CA Osasuna, FC Valencia and Athletic Bilbao have also competed in the Copa del Rey finals in recent years. This means that the road to the final alone promises many exciting and high-class matches.

There are various options for buying Copa del Rey tickets from Germany.

Current tickets for the Copa del Rey

These are the upcoming Copa del Rey matches:

How do you get Copa del Rey tickets?

On the one hand, the respective clubs in the competition are of course the first port of call for tickets. As in everyday league football, tickets can be purchased via the websites of FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and all the other clubs in the ticket shop. However, the prerequisite for this is that tickets are also on sale and are not only available to club members and season ticket holders. However, the latter is particularly the case for matches with high prestige and in later cup rounds.

Another obstacle for interested parties could be that the clubs’ websites are in most cases only available in Spanish and sometimes in English. The necessary registration process and ticket sales in the shop system may therefore be unclear.

For this reason, the secondary market is a sensible alternative. Experience has shown that there is a wide range of tickets available on ticket sites such as Viagogo or StubHub. For popular matches in particular, there are usually numerous adverts from which the cheapest tickets can be easily filtered out.

Finally, another option is football holidays. With a football trip, buyers book both the trip itself and a football ticket. Well-known providers such as OLKA Sportresor and OLKA Express, but now also many German providers, advertise attractive travel packages and supposedly favourable conditions.

How much do tickets for Copa del Rey matches cost?

Ticket prices in the Copa del Rey are largely based on those of the league. Exceptions to this are, on the one hand, the surcharges made by smaller teams for duels with big clubs. On the other hand, there may also be top match surcharges in the final rounds for highly charged matches. In such cases, tickets can cost up to 25 per cent more than in the league.

Incidentally, the semi-finals are played as first and second legs. In the event of a clear lead after the first leg, tickets for the second leg often cost comparatively little on the side of the trailing team.

Where can I get the cheapest Copa del Rey tickets?

The RFEF reformed the cup for the 2019/2020 season. Since then, teams from the first and second Spanish leagues as well as the best teams from the four-tier third division and the champions of the fourth division have played in the competition. This means that there are some opportunities to buy tickets at favourable prices from lower-class clubs, which always have the right to play at home against higher-class teams in the first rounds of the Copa del Rey.

When buying tickets, however, it should be noted that there is often a small allocation of tickets, especially for the lower league clubs, as the stadiums only have a manageable capacity. Of course, this also influences market prices on the secondary market, as demand for tickets against teams such as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is high everywhere, regardless of the competition.

When do Copa del Rey matches take place and when are tickets available to buy?

All Copa del Rey matches up to the final usually take place during the week. Possible match days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. However, in the past, the RFEF has also scheduled an entire round on a weekend – for example, the third main round of the 2023/2024 cup season.

As with league matches, experience shows that pre-sales of cup tickets start a few weeks before a match date. Whether day tickets go on sale depends on the allocation and demand. Particularly in the case of the big clubs in the premier league, tickets are often allocated exclusively to “Socios” (club members) and “Penas” (fan clubs) as well as season ticket holders. However, the allocation to fan clubs in particular often leads to all kinds of offers on the secondary market.

Tickets for Copa del Rey matches on the secondary market

There are many reasons for selling tickets on the secondary market. In most cases, these are offers from ticket holders who are no longer able to attend a match or have lost interest in the game. Sometimes this gives you the chance to buy tickets for matches that were actually already sold out or you can find first-class seats for a top match. There are a few important aspects to consider on the secondary market:

• Even if the tickets are original tickets, the price may be higher than in official advance sales, as the sellers themselves determine the price.
• The transactions take place privately between seller and buyer – ticket exchanges such as Viagogo or StubHub act as intermediaries.
• Ticket exchanges offer the advantage of an organised and documented sales or purchase process, which means more security for buyers.
• To maximise buyer protection, secure payment methods such as PayPal should be used, while bank transfers pose a risk.
• There is also always a large supply of tickets on eBay, classified ads and in social media, but the transactions there take place without intermediaries, which is why there are often cases of fraud.

The last point in particular is always important for interested parties, no matter what type of ticket is involved. Especially if a bank transfer is requested instead of offering PayPal as a payment method, there is a risk that the offer is not a serious one.

Tickets via a football trip – is it worth it?

Spain is a popular holiday destination anyway. This is why there are now many different providers such as OLKA or Dertour, which offer so-called football holidays to Spain. On a football trip, interested parties book both the ticket for a match and the trip itself as well as accommodation and possibly other details. This results in a combined package with a corresponding price.

Whether this price for a Copa del Rey match (or for another competition) is actually worthwhile varies greatly from person to person. On the one hand, it is not always clear which match you can actually get a ticket for. On the other hand, experience has shown that more favourable conditions can be found if you plan your trip yourself, but this requires that flights, accommodation, etc. are booked as early as possible.

The Copa del Rey final

As mentioned at the beginning, the Copa del Rey final promises to be a very special highlight of Spanish football year after year. CA Osasuna, FC Valencia, Betis Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociadad – these are all teams that are not usually competitors in the championship but have reached the Copa del Rey final in recent years.

The match usually takes place on a Saturday at the end of the season and in the evening at 8 or 10 pm. The venue for the final is decided by the RFEF shortly before each year. The final has, of course, been held in Madrid more often than average, although the Olympic Stadium in Seville has been used regularly in recent years.

Tickets are allocated independently of the stadium used for the final. The RFEF leaves around 80 per cent of the allocation to the finalists. The remaining 20 per cent will go partly to sponsors, employees and invited guests. Fans can apply for the remaining (several thousand) tickets around a month before the final, after which a random draw will decide who can buy a final ticket for the Copa del Rey.

Frequently asked questions about the Copa del Rey