Eastern Cape fans get a feel for World Cup - 02/03/2007
Eastern Cape officials will use the match between Kaizer Chiefs and Bloemfontein Celtic on March 25 to familiarise supporters with seating arrangements for the 2010 World Cup . The two meet in the Nelson Mandela Museum Challenge in PE. Speaking at a media briefing on Friday, Putco Mafani, spokesperson for the organisers, said colour-coded ticketing system will be used. ’We want our people to start getting used to the requirements of the 2010 World Cup. It’s great to get Chiefs and Celtic because they command a huge following.’
Football’s ruling body FIFA on Wednesday buried any lingering doubts over the ability of South Africa to stage the 2010 World Cup saying organisation of the tournament had already begun. ’Operation and implementation has started in South Africa,’ Markus Siegler, FIFA communications head told a media briefing in Johannesburg, urging journalists to end ’all speculation’ about the tournament being pulled from the country. According to a M&S.com report, ticketing was the biggest challenge in the organization of the World Cup, he said. FIFA was still mulling over how to ensure Africans had wide access to the 3 million tickets to be issued for the first football World Cup to be held on the continent.
PSL to launch colour coded seating arrangements - 13/02/2007
The PSL will launch colour coded seating arrangements tomorrow to ensure a smooth transition to the 2010 World Cup in SA. The SABC reports that the league match between defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates at Loftus will be an all ticket affair. From now on tickets will be colour coded and stadiums will be divided into blocks, separating rival supporters and preventing unnecessary clashes. These ticket and seating arrangements will be in place during the World Cup in SA in three years’ time.
Fifa officials are warning that tickets could be a premium during the 2010 World Cup finals even though there have been predictions SA will find it hard to fill the stadiums.Cosafa.com reports that poor attendances at the majority of PSL fixtures has led to a consensus that it will be hard to fill the 10 stadiums to be used for the World Cup but Fifa are insisting they expect full house signs to go up long before kick off. There will be 3m tickets available for the 2010 finals and both Fifa’s office in SA and the 2010 LOC are predicting a scramble for seats.
2010 WC tickets may be out of reach for the poor - 26/07/2006
South Africans rich and poor will find it difficult to get their hands on 2010 WC tickets, which will be sold on a first come, first served basis. The Cape Argus reports that ’MPs were briefed on 2010 progress by the CE of the LOC, Danny Jordaan. MPs quizzed Jordaan’s team about the price of the tickets and said the cost might be out of reach for the poor.’
2010 WC tickets will be hard to come by - 26/07/206
Only about 1m South Africans will be able to watch football matches in stadiums during the 2010 WC, regardless of what price the tickets sell for. Business Day reports that ’this emerged when a high-powered delegation from the Fifa’s SA office and the LOC briefed Parliament’s two committees dealing with sport. The briefing comes on the back of fears that the tickets will be too expensive for ordinary SA football lovers. Head of Fifa’s local office Michael Palmer said it was expected that 3m tickets would be available for the 64 matches in the 2010 tournament.’
Fans of countries playing at the World Cup will get more tickets at future tournaments after Fifa vowed to scrap its controversial practice of giving teams just 8% of the seats at their matches. Blatter wants to make a better distribution of tickets for the public at large for the 2010 World Cup in SA onwards, including raising the 8% allocation to teams supporters, said a source close to the Fifa boss.
Rather than joining in any mounting alarm - with some SA soccer officials voicing immediate concern - Local Organising Committee CE Danny Jordaan said that he welcomed Fifas decision to take charge of ticket sales for the 2010 World Cup. It will make for a smoother, overall organisation of the tournament in SA, said Jordaan in a phone interview from Germany, where he is conducting official World Cup business with president Sepp Blatter and other Fifa officials. The main issue is that the change will in no way alter the provision whereby the host nation is entitled to all the gate takings at the Word Cup tournament - and there was never any suggestion of this happening. What Fifa is trying to do is streamline the operation in which they have an overriding role in the organisation of the World Cup.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter says his organization should take over ticketing arrangements for the 2010 World Cup in SA. Blatter said in an interview it would have been better if soccers world governing body had organized ticket sales for the 2006 World Cup, rather than host country Germany, after criticizing strict German controls. It would probably have been better if we had taken over the ticket sales. The Germans have chosen a system that I dont understand at all, Blatter told the weekly NZZ am Sonntag. Tickets are embedded with microchips and issued to individuals, who will face recognition scanners at the stadiums turnstiles. Blatter thinks the system is too intricate, but organizers say it is for security reasons. The 3.3m tickets will be personalized, creating the threat of long queues at the stadiums with organizers planning checks if the person with the ticket is the person on the ticket. The idea is to eliminate stolen or counterfeit tickets, as well as keeping ticket brokers or others from inflating the price.
