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Not special enough to attend World Cup matches, according to Fifa

Kennedy Mudzuli

A fierce discussion took place in the newsroom about the upcoming Fifa World Cup.
This prompted a switch from community issues to the event generally known as the greatest sporting event on Earth.

Questions about ticketing and media accreditation processes arose. Top of the list was why the South African public, government and football authorities were allowing Fifa to dictate who attends World Cup matches.
After all, the country has successfully hosted cricket and rugby world cups as well as the All Africa Games without complicated, unfair and undemocratic ticketing processes. And the stadiums were packed.
The scribes have eagerly awaited the 11 June kick-off of the World Cup since 15 May 2004 when Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced the country as organiser and host of the 2010 event.
But what happened over the last few months has been an agonising wait for the promised notification on the fate of ticket applications. When this didn’t arrive, the only way was to phone the ticket line. The operator sympathetically said applications were not successful but ‘please apply again’, and ‘Fifa is not obliged to give a reason’ for the rejection.
What guarantee is there that the second application will succeed? And with all due respect to participating nations, which matches are left to watch, really?
Blatter and his side-kick Jérôme Valcke have been quoted as saying there were some hundreds of thousands of tickets still available. They even want to reduce the prices. If so, why did they turn down applications of football lovers who want to be able to say ‘we were there too’? Watching football is all they want, not to shoot the Fifa president when he declares the event open, or bomb Soccer City Stadium.
Then there is the thorny issue of media accreditations still being processed. Watch this space, they will go to the Swiss media (Fifa headquarters are in Zürich) as well as the ‘respectable’ English, French and Germans, and football giants such as Brazil, Portugal and Spain.
As for Joe Football-Fan, Blatter and Valcke seemingly don’t believe you are special enough to watch their show.
kennedym@caxton.co.za

Published on February 23, 2010 at 10:18 am