FIFA’s latest ticket release has left many footy fans crying foul

A fresh batch of tickets for games in Toronto and Vancouver went on sale, fueling excitement and causing a scramble among fans. Adrian Ghobrial reports.

TORONTO - Ahead of June’s World Cup tournament, the worldwide governing body of soccer has released tickets to the upcoming matches in phases, leaving some fans and soccer pundits frustrated.

With just 50 days to go before the World Cup kickoff, FIFA released a ticket drop on April 22, that was pitched as a “last-minute sale” with available tickets to each of the 104 World Cup matches.

Almost instantly online, many people began questioning why FIFA still had available tickets to all of its games, with less than two months to go before kickoff.

“I’ve been unsuccessful during the first couple phases of the ticket release and its left me really jaded by the whole process,” says Rob Fielder, author of multiple soccer books including “The Complete History of the World Cup.”

‘Almost there. Don’t move!’

CTV National News logged onto FIFA’s tickets website ahead of the 11am ET ticket release. We were promptly added to the online “queue” and the words “almost there” appeared, written in bold at the top of the page.

The web page also confirmed that our “position in the queue is secured. Don’t move!”

Four hours later we were still, “almost there” while still waiting in queue, a red line showed that we’d passed the halfway point of the queue.

With a deadline to publish this report looming, and unable to simply sit there and wait for who knows how long, we logged off and left the queue, leaving FIFA’s “last-minute sale” without the faintest chance to buy a pricey pair of seats to any of the matches.

“We’re seeing a chaotic approach to ticketing, ticket prices and ticket releases,” says Fielder.

Fans voice frustrations over ticket chaos

On social media this week, soccer fans have voiced their frustration with FIFA’s ticket play. With some claiming that FIFA’s phased approach to ticket sales is creating an artificial scarcity, to drive up ticket prices.

“It feels very cynical on FIFA’s part, very commercial and what (FIFA) would say is they’re acting in the best interests of the global game. They’re trying to raise as much money as they possibly can, so they can hand out money to the wider world and smaller countries that make up FIFA’s 200 or so members” Fielder said.

“I think what fans will say is they’re paying the price for this, and they’re paying prices that are substantially more than previous World Cup tournaments and way above what feels like a fair price,” adds Fielder.

CTV News reached out to FIFA for their reaction to these allegations, but have yet to receive a response.

A new report released in “The New York Times” sports division, “The Athletic”, says FIFA is struggling to sell tickets for the U.S. Men’s World Cup opener in Los Angeles. The report claims that as of April 10, just over 40,000 tickets had been purchased, the stadiums capacity is nearly 70,000. However, “The Athletic” was unable to quantify how many of the remaining seats may have already been set aside for dignitaries and VIPs.

For regular fans, trying in vain to score a set of seats during FIFA’s latest ticket drop, many — including us — left with less than a winning feeling after waiting in queue for hours.