Police called as World Cup ticket sales problems recur in South Africa

Posted Saturday, May 29, 2010 by theguardian.com

Police were called in to control angry crowds trying to buy World Cup tickets today after Fifa's sales system collapsed under the strain. Football's governing body put 90,000 new tickets on the market, including seats at the final and semi-finals, which had previously been declared to be sold out, causing a new rush among South African fans.

Some people had been queueing for more than 24 hours to get tickets but when the system opened it immediately collapsed, as it did last month when over-the-counter sales first began in South Africa. Overflowing queues caused delays on one commuter route in Johannesburg.

The Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, issued an apology over the problems as police were required to control the crowds in Johannesburg. At one point, they closed the doors to a ticketing office in the city's Sandton district.

"It's Fifa that does not have a system in place that is letting South African people look stupid because they must have anticipated this would happen," said one woman in the line, Amelia Rawllan. "This is rubbish, complete rubbish. People are pushing in and there is no order," Bongwa Mthembu added.

The tickets were on sale at supermarkets and bank branches as well as special counters but all relied on Fifa's computer system. One man, Vanesh Reddy, had been waiting outside a ticketing office since Wednesday.

Fifa said in a statement that significant delays occurred in all sales outlets. "I would like to sincerely apologise to all the fans that have been affected by the problems in the ticketing sales system," Valcke said.

The system came back online later but there were still long delays and lines of angry fans.