Anzac Day football fans fleeced for tickets Scott Pendlebury and Jobe Watson. FOOTY fans are being fleeced up to $1000 for a seat at today's sold-out AFL blockbuster between Essendon and Collingwood, in a ticketing debacle that could have been avoided. Victoria Police has admitted it is powerless to stop scalpers selling tickets at hugely inflated prices because the match is not a "declared" event under Victoria's Major Sporting Event Act. A crowd of more than 90,000 fans will flock to the MCG for the biggest match of the season, paying as little as $36 at face value for an adult reserved seat. The same class of tickets were selling yesterday on websites such as eBay for up to $1000 each. But Victoria Police said anyone caught selling tickets for higher prices could not be charged because scalping was an offence only if Sports Minister Hugh Delahunty declares the match a ticketed event. Mr Delahunty said today's match was not a declared event because the AFL had not requested it to be. But AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said it had been the Government that moved that the Grand Final become the league's first and only declared event.