By DPA,
Cape Town: Buy your World Cup tickets!
That was the message put out by South African officials and World Cup sponsors after Friday’s draw for next year’s World Cup finals.
Although the sport’s controlling body FIFA have repeatedly said they are happy with ticket sales and were well on course to reach their targets, not everyone connected to the World Cup seems to share their views.
The vice-president of the South African Football Association (SAFA) appealed to South Africans to support the host team, who were drawn into a difficult group with France, Uruguay and Mexico.
“Bafana have to get all the support they need.”
He also called on South Africans to watch other matches. “We have to sensitize football fans into buying tickets.”
FIFA has made a number of tickets available to South African residents only and these are being sold at much cheaper rates than the other tickets, with the cheapest seat starting at 120 Rand (16 dollars).
On Sunday, two official sponsors placed expensive full-page advertisements in the popular mass-circulation Sunday Times encouraging fans to buy tickets.
Financial institution Visa, who are one of the competition’s global sponsors, had a full-page ad, in which they said: “Make Sure You Can Say I Was There”.
The advertisement, which pictured a football fan and his daughter, went on to say: “Book Your Seat In History.”
First National Bank, meanwhile, bought a four-page insert in the middle of the main section of the newspaper, asking: “Have You Landed Double Tickets?”, in reference to a competition they ran giving away tickets.
Elsewhere, the same sponsor offers potential customers guaranteed tickets if they invest R50,000 or more.
Many South African fans though have complained that the process of buying tickets through the official FIFA website (FIFA.com) is difficult.
“I have tried several times to get on, but it simply proved virtually impossible. In the end I gave up,” football fan Peter Walton said.
Others complained that their requests for tickets were turned down.
“I can’t understand it. We are being encouraged to buy tickets, but when I applied, I got an e-mail back saying that I had not been successful,” said another fan.
“I find that very strange, but I am still hoping to secure at least some tickets to see some of the matches.”
Last month, FIFA had already extended the second purchasing phase by a few days and said at the time that even team-specific tickets which included tickets for the final were still available.
The third ticketing stage began Saturday.