Franz Beckenbauer, president of the organising committee for the 2006 World Cup, has sharply assailed the world governing body of soccer, accusing Fifa of being greedy and threatening to resign if the Germans didn’t have full control over ticket pricing.
The strongly worded attack came in an interview in Friday’s edition of the Kicker magazine, one day before a Fifa Executive Committee meeting to decide whether to raise the number of 2006 finalists from 32 to 36 and on the day Fifa announced a tender for the hospitality program at the tournament.
Beckenbauer told Kicker Fifa was trying to set ”crazy prices” for VIP ticket packages that no one in Germany would be willing to pay. He did not name the figures, but said they would meet with ”total incomprehension” in Germany.
”The chief objective of Fifa is to make money; everything else is secondary,” Beckenbauer told Kicker.
”Because of Fifa’s tense financial situation, they are striving to make as much money as they can to fulfill their future obligations,” he said.
Fifa said it wasn’t trying to ”make money at any costâ€.
”First of all, we obviously don’t only want to make money. We want to organise the World Cup in a perfect way, together with the Germans. Setting the prices will be done by the Fifa organizing committee, in which the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) is represented, and traditionally the LOCs have a great deal of influence,” said representative Andreas Herren.
”It is impossible to always satisfy people. We have to strike a balance between the price level and the affordability while bearing in mind that ticketing is a very sensitive issue,” he said.
Beckenbauer praised Fifa’s role in helping poor countries, but said ”everything must remain in relationship”.
Fifa said last month it had closed its four-year cycle from 1999 to 2002 with a profit of 115 million Swiss francs (about $83-million), far better than the losses it had forecast last May. At a two-hour press conference — the first in the organization’s 99-year history to deal solely with its finances — President Sepp Blatter declared the organization was ”financially more stable than ever”.
Beckenbauer said the German organisers would not allow themselves to be made responsible for things they had no influence over.
”We won’t let that happen. I’d rather quit,” Beckenbauer said.
Wolfgang Niersbach, media director of the organising committee, said the dispute with Fifa was over areas of responsibility.
”It’s about roles to be played by Fifa and the organsing committee. It’s also a question of responsibility,” Niersbach said.
German organisers have to turn over up to 15% of the 3,2-million tickets to Fifa to be sold as VIP packages. On the number of World Cup finalists, Beckenbauer has said he’d prefer to leave it at 32 but that Germany would have no problem accommodating four more.
In announcing the hospitality plan, Fifa said it was inviting ”interested parties to submit tenders covering the sale, management and production” of the program. By offering such rights through an open tender for the first time, Fifa said it was ”clearly” reflecting the ”transparent approach Fifa has brought to its commercial and financial operations”.
The hospitality program offers guests, including the general public, a range of hospitality services, including food and beverages, entertainment, souvenirs and parking, Fifa said. – Sapa/AP