U-17 World Cup ticket row: We have contractual obligations, says LOC

Panaji: The local organising committee (LOC) for the Fifa U-17 World Cup said all tickets that were put up for sale are the maximum that can be sold at each venue, discounting commitments from contractual obligations.

Several fans were left seething in anger after they were denied a chance to watch the opening match of the Fifa U-17 World Cup in Goa. The clash between Germany and Costa Rica had generated quite a lot of interest and tickets were also “sold out”. But when the match kicked off, there were large parts of the West stand virtually empty. Other stands also had several unoccupied seats.

“All the tickets that have been put up for sale, are the maximum number of tickets that can be sold at each venue discounting below mentioned commitments. When a venue appears sold out, it reflects the position of tickets that have been put out for sale.

“Discounting the contractual obligations with the Hosting Association, all the participating teams, all the 13 commercial partners of the Tournament, the host broadcaster, the signatories of host city, stadium and training site
agreements and other stakeholders with which there are contracts with regards to the Tournament, to provide tickets,” Fifa said in a statement on Sunday.

Details of the number of tickets sold or the number of complimentary passes that were handed out were not available.

Officially, there were 12,329 fans in attendance for the Germany-Costa Rica and Iran-Guinea games at Fatorda, while the official capacity is approximately 16,000.

In Kochi too there were similar problems. Due to security concerns, the capacity of the Nehru Stadium in Kochi has been reduced to 29,200. Tickets for the opening match between Brazil and Spain were sold out at least a week in advance. However, only 21,362 fans turned up which was close to 8,000 less than the capacity.