No other subject has generated such fever among football fans and officials over the past few months as the sale of 3,7-million tickets for the World Cup’s 64 matches.
And the problematic issue looks set to occupy the public right up to the tournament final on July 9. After tickets went on sale in January of last year, president of Germany’s World Cup organising committee (OK), Franz Beckenbauer, said: ”The theme will occupy us until July 9, 2006, when the referee blows the whistle on the final. And there will be problems of which we do not yet know.”
The ”Kaiser” was right. Distribution of the personalised tickets, through a system developed by the OK, has roped in data and consumer protection agencies and has even engaged the courts.
Fifa president Joseph Blatter has complained that he never understood the system and has announced that Fifa itself will resume responsibility for ticket distribution for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. ”The system’s borders are discernible,” said Fifa’s vice-president, Horst Schmidt.
Just over one third of the tickets (1,12-million) have gone on sale to the public. The 32 participating football associations have received 592 000, the tournament’s sponsors have taken 490 000, another 347 000 tickets have been block-booked for the VIP programme, Germany’s footballing fraternity has been allocated 267 000.
Non-qualifying football associations and officials have been given 191 000 tickets. Holders to the tournament’s television rights have snapped up 63 000.
Those who come up trumps at the end of the four-selling phases must put up with a string of difficulties. Although the tickets will not be printed and sent to the buyer until weeks before the World Cup they must be paid for at the time of sale.
To prevent resale on the black market each ticket is fitted with a chip bearing the buyer’s personal details. Fifa’s Schmidt therefore advises all fans to bring their identity card or passport to gain entrance to stadiums.
Nevertheless, the OK yielded to pressure from consumer protection groups and facilitated the exchange and return of tickets via an internet portal that has been up and running since the end of March. Over 10 000 ticket holders have exercised their consumer rights.
One fan from Essen even went before the courts to win the right to transfer his data to a ticket he brought at an inflated price on internet auction site Ebay. However in issuing its verdict, the Frankfurt-based court stipulated that its ruling applied only to that one-off case.
In order to ensure a smooth course of events during the final, the OK has worked out a special system. Each of the 12 match locations throughout Germany will have two team ticket points (TTP). In each of the four sectors around the stadiums ticket service points (TSP) will be set up. Inside the arenas a stadium ticket centre (STC) with 30 counters will open ten days before a game where fans can collect, transfer or buy tickets.
As the OK expects some ticket returns the system means they can be put up for sale again immediately. ”Our aim is to fill the World Cup stadiums,” explains Schmidt. A sold-out World Cup, however, is ”practically unachievable”.
Still the OK wants to demonstrate more flexibility in checking the personalised tickets than it did in selling them. ”We will not start wars at the entry gates out of sheer pig-headness and we will not build bureaucratic hurdles. The spectators will not lose their joy at the World Cup,” stressed Schmidt. – Sapa-DPA