Johannesburg: World Cup organisers said Friday that 500,000 tickets are unsold and fear "tragic" empty stadiums at football's showcase event.
FIFA said the tickets would go on sale to the general public in South Africa over the counter at 11 centers countrywide as well as at supermarkets and banks from April 15.Organizers will then have less than two months to sell nearly a quarter of the tournament's total match tickets to avoid empty seats.
"I think that today there is one challenge that we definitely have to work on," FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke told The Associated Press. "It's to make sure all the stadiums are full and that we are selling all these tickets."
Organizers conceded their initial online process was not suited to local fans, who are generally poor, do not have credit cards and are not used to buying tickets on the Internet.
"If we do have empty stadiums, it will reinforce the idea that football is not supported in the country and that would be tragic," Organizing committee chief executive Danny Jordaan said. "The reality is that this is a football-mad country."
Organizers were in Soweto on Friday to show the official match ticket, which has two unique barcodes to stop forgery and combat black market selling. But the biggest problem with the tickets is that not enough people are buying them.
FIFA said 2.2 million tickets had been bought ahead of the fifth and final phase of selling. Fans in the host country had bought the most with 925,437 tickets sold, followed by the United States with 118,945.
But just 67,654 tickets have been sold in Britain, less than the number of fans who typically attend a Manchester United home game. Germany has only purchased 32,269.
FIFA did not say how many of the 500,00 remaining tickets were returned from commercial partners and affiliates. Football's governing body only said it was "a significant number."
The global economic climate and safety fears in South Africa may have played a part in the disappointing foreign sales, but FIFA admitted it had made mistakes with local fans.
"Yes, definitely. The approach at the beginning by using Internet and by using computers was not the most friendly system for the South Africans," Valcke said.
There are still 120,000 category four tickets — the cheapest and reserved exclusively for South Africans — to be sold.
South Africans are being asked to pay 140 rand ($19) for a group game, not including the tournament opener. To watch South Africa play Mexico at Soccer City to open the event on July 11, a local supporter will have to pay 490 rand ($67) for the cheapest ticket.
Football fans in the country rarely pay more than 20 rand ($3) to watch a local game.
The average monthly income in South Africa is estimated at just over 2,700 rand ($372). But for black people, who make up the majority of the country's football fans, the average monthly income is only 1,620 rand ($223).
Valcke said FIFA would consider selling the category four tickets to neighboring African countries if they remained unsold.
Organizers said the "positive" interest from U.S. fans was due to the country's performance at last year's Confederations Cup in South Africa.
"After that, the interest (in the United States) skyrocketed," Jordaan said.
But Valcke said the sales in Europe were "disappointing."
"Maybe we are getting too much (football)." Valcke said of European fans. "We are getting whatever we want. We have football matches every day. Either the Champions League or the Europa League or the club league or the cups."
Even the presence of injured England superstar David Beckham at the World Cup may not be enough to sell out stadiums.
"He will come. He is still coming," Valcke said of Beckham, but initial figures that he will be joined by an estimated 450,000 foreign visitors are now sure to be too high.
Valcke said 350,000 may be a more realistic figure.
"We will see what is the final number," he said. "We talk about 450,000, I say 350,000. Let's wait until the end of the World Cup and then we will have a final figure."
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