A ticket to attend a football (soccer) match in London - does club membership help?

Keith's advice is sound although his opinion on Arsenal is somewhat jaundiced. At home they score a lot of goals, certainly a lot more than Chelsea.
I would suggest another London club, Crystal Palace who had a wonderful second half of the season. They play in a somewhat ramshackle ground but with bags of atmosphere.

If you are prepared to make a short trip out of the capital go to Southampton who have a young team with lots of rising English stars and who play very sophisticated football. They don't sell out every game and I would highly recommend the experience. I am ,as you may realise, biased but that's the point of being a supporter.

Is there a local supporters club in your area that you can join? If it has official affiliation with the club they will get some allocation of tickets, even to so-called "big" games. Depending on number of members, and the number within that that have means to go to England, there may or may not be much competition to get the tickets.

There's also Thomas Cook, which offers expensive tickets in packages including hotel. Since the packages are so pricey, this would be an option for a die-hard only.

I'd take the advice and go to Southampton. They are an exciting team but face stiff competition this summer to keep some of their top talent.

Hi all:

Thanks for your responses; you have provided really useful information. The most important thing now is to wait until the fall match schedule is published for each team to see who will be playing in the greater London area, to include Southhampton, during the 2-1/2 weeks that I will be in town. As has been pointed out, I have found that club membership does not get you a whole lot of benefit. I will be looking at the details for each football club with a focus on the less well known (at least in the USA) Premier League clubs and the Championship League clubs. For example, I looked at the Crystal Palace web site and discovered that if one purchases a ticket to an "A" match one also must purchase a ticket to a "B" match. It is things like this that need review. I would even consider going to a ticket broker if the mark up for a less prestigious team is not that much.

Please post any more thoughts on this matter. One of my co-workers was in London two months ago to escort his daughter to a soccer/football camp, and he attended a West Ham match which he enjoyed. He was particularly impressed with the police presence at the venue

Too be fair,with the football west ham play counting the policemen might have been more entertaining.
While not London, Villa Park is one of the top couple of traditional english grounds,if one of the london glamourpusses are playing there should be easy to get a ticket.

"...As has been pointed out, I have found that club membership does not get you a whole lot of benefit...."

Yes and No. It's got limited benefit getting tickets directly from the club for a lot of matches. But it's most important value is access to the resale market. Resale sites like viagogo.com have agreements with the clubs to only sell tickets to members. You can most always get tickets to any match from viagogo. The price may be prohibitive for some high profile matches but there is always availability. For out of towners the resale sites are the best source for getting tickets to the high-profile clubs like Arsenal and Chelsinksi.

Perhaps I'm a soccer snob but I wouldn't waste vacation time on the lesser teams like West Ham or Tottenham, for me I only go see the big boys play;)

Well my experience at Upton Park (West Ham's ground) was less positive, mind you that was 14 years ago! Those people scared me! We left shortly after the half because I had no wish to be crowded on the Underground with that lot.

Two matches at Anfield (2000 & 2013) were dreams come true in every way.

Arsenal's comeback in last week's FA Finals was something to watch (in London on TV).