Posted on 05/20/2010 1:36:48 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
A senior Fifa official has said he was "disappointed" by the number of World Cup tickets sold to fans in African countries.
Jerome Valcke said only 40,000 tickets have been sold in countries in the continent outside of South Africa.
The football body has faced criticism for not making tickets accessible to Africans, as most tickets were being sold via the internet.
It is the first time the World Cup is being held on African soil. 'Priced out'
Mr Valcke - who has previously billed the event as a "real African World Cup" - said that African sales were "poor" and that Fifa would have to re-think its strategy towards Brazil, hosts of the 2014 Cup.
"It's really not a lot of tickets when you think that we have so many African countries playing in the World Cup," he said at a press event in South Africa.
"The system that we put in place was not perfect for South Africa and for Africa".
He said that there were also difficulties in air travel from one African country to South Africa.
South African Tourism Minister Martinus van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday that the figures were 76% less than those forecasted for the event.
He said that only 11,300 people in Africa made ticket purchases, out of a total of 230,000 foreign fans.
In March, Mr Valcke denied that Africans were being priced out of tournaments.
While tickets in South Africa were offered at a lower price, fans in other African countries had to pay the standard amount - with the cheapest costing $80 (£54).
Critics also said that many Africans would face difficulties accessing the internet, or might not have a credit card to make purchases online.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Gee, who wouldn’t want to be carjacked, kidnapped, raped, hacked with machetes and set on fire?
Who in their right mind would go to South Africa?
Or about 600 trillion in Zimbabwe dollars.
Maybe the stadium will have a necklace night for the first 2000 attendees.
or 2 fine goats and a basket of milo.
All the tickets sold in Africa for this entire tournament would half fill Giants Stadium.
You are baaaaaad.........................
ESPN news has special about so called corrective rapes that South African men impose on Lesbians do you know only 1% of cases go to trial
I was going WHOA
Yeah even ESPN News asking WTF World cup people think having the games in backward country like South Africa
They actually ask that question LOL!
“Or about 600 trillion in Zimbabwe dollars.”
What do you mean? I’m sure there are plenty of white farm owners that can afford to...nevermind!
You are bad
That what ESPN News has story on that LOL!
BOY Freepers are cold this afternoon LOL!
Why should Africans pay money to attend a soccer riot? They have riots everywhere all the time for nothing.
and that’s just the Olympic games!
The most shocking thing is that these idiots are actually surprised.
I got question are they going allow Brit soccer fans into the country
I think people are more fearful of being eaten by the prawns in District 9.
You forgot infected with HIV, TB, malaria, Ebola, Sleeping Sickness, Blood flukes, river blindness, elephantiasis, and kala-azar.
One African country in particular or other African countries in general?
Here are the African qualifiers, none of which would be considered even vaguely financially robust:
Algeria
Cameroon
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Nigeria
One muslim hellhole and 3 from the old slave coast.
the story is that very few tickets have been sold within Africa; not that very few tickets have sold.
They’ve sold 2.5 mm of the 3 mm available.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.