“Tickets sale in Africa is not what we expected. As it stands now, I must say that we are less than satisfied,” LOC CEO Danny Jordaan told a media briefing yesterday, 12 January 2010 in Nasrec, near Soweto in Johannesburg.
Jordaan revealed that Africa's tickets sale has not yet reached the 100 000 mark in the six African countries competing in the World Cup.
“South African fans are not buying tickets for Bafana Bafana's group A games,” he explained worryingly, adding that it will be the first time in the competition's history that a host nation is not topping the list of tickets sale.
“I will be returning to Angola soon to meet with officials of all the five teams qualified for the World Cup to find out if their people back home are experiencing problems in getting 2010 tickets,” he added.
Apart from South Africa which failed to qualify, all the five teams representing Africa (Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria) in the June-July tournament are currently competing in the Orange Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.
Furthermore, Jordaan said the number of tickets requested and sold stands at over 1 million, with at least 3.1 million others still available.
“We will be closing the current ticket sale phase on January 22, and make an assessment to see how we can proceed to the next phase,” he said, adding that some tickets are over-subscribed.
“Now we know that the bigger is the team, the bigger is the following.”
However, with less than five months to go, there are fears that the 2010 World Cup is destined for crowd fiasco - poor attendances and empty seats - as problems ranging from low purchasing power - caused by poverty and unemployment - and logistical problems seem to be hampering the ticketing process.
The euphoria that filled many Africans soccer fans after SA was chosen to host the world's biggest soccer event seems to be fading away, as reality hit - no money, no live soccer.
Jordaan's concerns seem to be epitomising what many analysts feared since the very first day the world was told that the 2010 World Cup will be coming to Africa.
At least two-thirds of Africa's 950 million people live below the poverty line, spending less than US$1 a day to survive and analysts predicted that many African soccer fans might not be able to purchase tickets because of poverty.
“I would like to go and cheer Bafana Bafana at the stadium but I can't afford to buy a ticket - it is too expensive for an ordinary person like me. I think the World Cup is for overseas people and the riches who can afford to buy tickets,” soccer fan Victor Sithole, of Pimville in Soweto, told Bizcommunity.com.
Elizabeth Majola, of Braamfontein, lamented: “The process of buying a ticket is complicated and I don't have much time and energy to go through it. Why can't they simplify the process, like sell tickets at Computicket or at any ordinary outlet such as Shoprite? That will surely make things easier.”
