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| | This campaign is not really about the 2006 World Cup. It is about the general FIFA policy that allows World Cup hosts to allocate 80-90% of tickets either to locals or to corporate clients. In France 98 less than 20% of all tickets went to real fans. In USA 94 it was 15%. For Japan & Korea, allocation was around 16%.
Because of the vast distance and expense involved in a trip to the 2006 World Cup, many countries may find demand for tickets satisfied even at such paltry allocations. But this isn't the case everywhere, including England. In our opinion, it's just obscene that a local businessman on a free lunch with no more than a passing interest can snatch a ticket from someone who's prepared to spend his life savings and travel half way round the world to see the game.
The real issue here is getting some change in time for South Africa 2010, and beyond. France 98 was a disaster for real fans. Demand outstripped supply by 10-1 for most games. Tickets were reserved for the French, and a great many were sold on the black market at vastly inflated prices. Not only does this take money out of the game, but it creates a serious security issue as it breaks down the segregation plans.
A secondary problem is that the ticket sale process is just too slow and complicated. This means that when tickets are over-allocated to certain bodies, as is sometimes the case, they don't always get put back into circulation and sold. Then we have the ludicrous spectacle of empty seats in 40,000 seat stadiums for events billions want to watch. We want to see more efficient and flexible practices for allocating and pricing tickets, to ensure grounds are always full.
Show your support by signing the petition.
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