More than 120 000 tickets for the World Cup are set to be given away, Local Organising Committee (LOC) chief executive Danny Jordaan said on Friday.
”With this ticket fund, they are not going to geographic communities but communities of engagement,” he told reporters in Kliptown, Johannesburg.
”When you host the event you have to take into account the socio-economic conditions.”
Jordaan said the first beneficiaries of the free tickets would be the 20 000 construction workers who worked on stadium projects. They would be given two tickets each.
”The only people who are guaranteed a ticket are the construction workers … If you helped build the stadiums, you’ll get a ticket. Everyone else must queue,” joked Jordaan.
Most of the tickets — 80 000 of them — are being given away by Fifa’s corporate partners.
Sport-wear company Adidas, in cooperation with the Education Department, will be giving away 15 000 tickets to students.
Coca-Cola will be awarding as many as 20 000 tickets to children who participate in their recycling programme.
Carmaker Kia has partnered with an NGO, Sporting Chance, to give away 4 000 tickets to children who are part of their programme to encourage healthy lifestyles.
Sony has partnered with Grassroot Soccer, another NGO which will distribute 15 000 tickets to young people who are working to create an ”HIV-free generation”.
Visa will be distributing 5 000 tickets to the employees of tourism companies. Those lucky people work for companies who participate in Visa’s financial literacy programme.
Emirates and Hyundai are distributing 15 000 and 5 000 tickets respectively but have yet to finalise their plans for awarding them.
Fifa marketing director Thierry Weil said the ticket give-away was a first for the World Cup.
”We found a World Cup ticket, which is really valuable and not easy to get, can be used for education,” he said. — Sapa