FIFA OFFICIALS WARN ON WORLD CUP TICKETS

FIFA officials are warning that tickets could be a premium during the 2010 World Cup finals even though there have been predictions South Africa will find it hard to fill the stadiums.
Poor attendances at the majority of Premier Soccer League 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 3-million tickets available for the 2010 finals and both FIFA’s office in South Africa and the 2010 Local Organising Committee are predicting a scramble for seats.
Michael Palmer, who is the acting head of FIFA’s office in Johannesburg, says the ticket distribution will be divided into one third for the local market, one third for the international market and the last million for competing teams, FIFA’s marketing partners and members of the world football family.
“Those tickets not taken up by the international market will come back to the South African market,” he says.
But Danny Jordaan, who predicts at least 350 000 foreign visitors, says that is unlikely to happen. The 2010 boss predicts that, because foreigners will all be making long haul trips to watch the World Cup, they will snap up at least two to three tickets per person.
A decision on prices will be made in the middle of next year and Palmer says prices will be relevant to the local market. “Quantity and not price is the biggest issue. One of the risks we run in South Africa is that the pressure put on to make the prices lower will raise expectation unnecessarily.
“The reality is that even if the tickets are affordable for everyone, they will be not be as available as consumers might hope because of the limited number of tickets,” Palmer added.