FIFA will give away free tickets to soccer fans in South Africa in an attempt to fill the thousands of empty seats at the Confederations Cup.
“There will be a number of complimentary tickets actually handed to institutions, institutions which have been very supportive of the event,” FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said yesterday. “It’s a gesture from FIFA. It’s a joint initiative from FIFA and the organizing committee to basically offer to those who maybe didn’t have a chance to attend the games so far to go there.”
Maingot said schools and local authorities will be among those receiving the tickets.
“In terms of numbers, I cannot give details,” Maingot said. “It very much depends on a game-by-game basis.”
After a near sellout in the opening match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, matches in Rustenburg, Pretoria and Bloemfontein were all played in stadiums nowhere near capacity.
Tickets at this year’s Confederations Cup range from US$10 to as high as US$200 for the final, which is out of the reach of many South Africans. The average attendance for the games so far, however, is in line with the overall average achieved at the previous three Confederations Cup tournaments.
“Ticket sales have gone very well,” said Rich Mkhondo, the 2010 World Cup organizing committee spokesman. “We still encourage most South Africans [to] attend these games. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity which no one would like to miss.”
There are eight games remaining in the group stage of the eight-team tournament, which is being used as a warm-up for next year’s World Cup. Following that, there are two semi-final matches, a consolation game and the final.
Maingot said that, so far, the free tickets were only for group matches.
“We are only targeting at the next coming games,” he said. “We are thinking group stage at first.”
Hosts South Africa, who played in a nearly full stadium in the tournament’s opener, played their second match Wednesday against New Zealand in Rustenburg while Spain faced Iraq in Bloemfontein.
Also yesterday, South Africa’s trade union federation said the low attendances were embarrassing.
“The low turnouts at some matches have been a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved upon if we are to demonstrate to the world our passion for soccer, and to remove any doubts about our commitment to the 2010 World Cup tournament,” spokesman Patrick Craven said in a statement.
Also See: Iraq soccer team proves a unifying force
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS