Random Rants on the Beautiful Game

World Cup ticket measures could create fan nightmare.

By Chris Courtney
SoccerTimes

COLOGNE, Germany (Sunday, May 28, 2006) -- The World Cup organizing committee's efforts to confront ticket scalping are noble in their intent, but the extraordinary control measures are coming at the expense of ordinary fans.

By now, most people know whether or not they have tickets to see this year's World Cup action live. After months of giving up unprecedented amounts of personal information on ticket applications in the on-line ticket lotteries, most fans came up empty-handed. The ones who seem to have little trouble in obtaining tickets are the corporate sponsors, who claimed 380,000 (or 12 percent) of the 3.1 million tickets available.

Rather than coming away with match tickets, millions of fans around the world might end up with their personal information sold to one of the tournament's sponsors. In order to even apply to purchase tickets, fans had to provide personal data and consent to its release. Among the data requested in order to purchase tickets were birth dates, e-mail addresses, passport numbers and bank account numbers.

According to Thilo Weichert, a spokesman for Germany's Independent Center for Data Protection: "They want the names to sell to the sponsors," he said. "In the small print of contract conditions, there are indications they want this information. And they want it not only from the ticket holders, but the ones who applied for tickets and didn't get anything."

For those lucky enough to obtain tickets, the experience of entering the World Cup stadiums will resemble the security screening for an international flight at New York's JFK Airport. Except at JFK, it is much easier to change your tickets.

The other issue cited as the reason for the strict ticket control measures was the chance that violent fans could buy tickets online and end up sitting next to rival supporters. If anything, the frustrating control measures enacted by the organizing committee stand the chance of making ordinary docile fans become frustrated (if not violent) when they cannot enter the game after flying thousands of miles to be there.

In an effort to prevent ticket scalping, each World Cup ticket is fitted with a microchip containing the ticket holder's name and passport number. Gate personnel at the stadiums are expected to check and verify each person's passport name and number against the ticket, meaning that each fan must have his passport in his or her possession when entering the ground. Add to that the airport-like security screening to enter the stadium and the resulting long lines to enter the game could mean thousands will miss a good portion of the first half unless they arrive hours in advance.

Changes can be made via ones national soccer federation (if the tickets were purchased through them) or by following a confusing set of directions on the FIFA World Cup ticketing web site. Even then, they can only be changed to someone who is related to the original ticket holder.

Some federations set their change dates so far in advance that it might not allow for changes which are a part of everyday life. For example, the United States deadline to change ticket data for anyone in one's party was May 8, an entire month before kickoff. Suppose someone and a group of friends bought tickets and one week prior to boarding their plane for Germany, one ends up in the hospital while another can't make it because his company just decided he must give a presentation in Dallas instead? The other two friends would need to find two relatives to whom to change their tickets, unless, of course, they were purchased through their federation, in which case it might be too late. The result: two empty seats at the match.

I personally believe the U.S. Soccer Federation, out of respect for its fans, will be as flexible as it can with the ticket change deadline it has set. After all, if players can be changed due to medical circumstances beyond the team's control, can't they have even more flexibility for the fans?

Even once a change is made, the green FIFA tickets remain printed with the name of the original ticket holder, causing much consternation to those who hope they will not be turned away at the stadium on game day because of a technical problem. Imagine changing tickets with one's brother and flying all the way from Australia to see the Socceroos in action, only to be denied entry because the database was not updated in time?

The organizing committee has appointed an ombudsman, Horst R. Schmidt, a role he described as "to make decisions on any complaints from ticket holders whose requests for a ticket transfer have initially been refused by the organizing committee."

Reasons for each ticket transfer must be provided to the organizers. "This is simply a matter of fairness," Schmidt explains. "After all, anyone benefiting from a transfer is jumping ahead of those waiting in the virtual queue on the Internet."

Of the initial 25,000 requests for transfer, about half were on the grounds of "within the family." Of those, 18,000 requests cited individual cases of hardship, while illness was reported in another 8,500. About 1,150 requests were divided between four reasons generally recognized by the organizing committee; they are "lack of an entry visa, lack of an exit visa, act of God, and death."

In cases where requests are denied, any individual who feels he or she has been treated unfairly can refer the case to the ombudsman service to seek resolution. Reference should be made to the reply received if the transfer was denied. The ombudsman service can be contacted by email at ombudsstelle@ok2006.de.

One person who might need to contact the ombudsman is Charles Kenwright, an England fan who was fortunate enough to get tickets to the England's June 10 opener against Paraguay. Instead of transferring his ticket to another person, Kenwright is waiting for his renewed passport to arrive since the passport number used to order his tickets will soon expire and no longer be valid. Once he has it in hand, he'll try to change the passport number in the database to ensure he can get into the game. With only days remaining until the match and still no passport, one can only imagine the anxious greeting his postman receives every day.

Despite these strong measures, tickets for the finals are selling for upwards of $3,000 on the auction website EBay with the caveat that they must be updated with the new data via FIFA. Meanwhile, the German organizers and FIFA are urging fans to avoid the black market and to buy through official channels at www.FIFAworldcup.com, or exchange tickets on another officially sanctioned site (where they are sold at their original face value).

Then, of course, we come to the unintended consequences of the stricter stadium entry controls. The presence of tens of thousands of fans, each one carrying a passport to get into the stadium, will serve as a magnet to Europe's most skilled pickpockets, who will see a veritable goldmine at each venue. Stolen passports have a street value of up to $7,500 and are highly sought after by human traffickers, gun-runners, drug dealers, and terrorists. Just to give an idea of a pickpocket's "market analysis," the 61,524 people attending the U.S.'s opening game against the Czech Republic at Gelsenkirchen's Arena auf Schalke could be carrying up to $461 million worth of passports (assuming all are worth the high-end price of $7,500).

So, by choosing such methods to chase away ticket scalpers, World Cup organizers have invited pickpockets to target the fans. Of course the German police, some of the world's best, will be close at hand to prevent such activity, but fans heading for the stadium are advised to avoid using easily snatched bags, such as purses and fanny packs, and to watch their wallets closely. It is strongly advised to keep tickets and passports in a money belt or one of the similar secure pocket systems that are widely available from travel outfitters.

I personally believe the organizers will be forced to abandon these manpower and time intensive control methods as last-minute ticket changes will quickly overwhelm their capacity to make updates. Also, to prevent matches from starting with half-empty stadiums, I think they'll be forced to spot-check tickets against passports instead of verifying each one. Otherwise, don't be surprised to see chaos at the gates.

Even FIFA president Sepp Blatter is not convinced that the ticket arrangements are completely sound. "The German organizers are in a very uncomfortable situation and, if the German organizers are uncomfortable, then FIFA is also uncomfortable," Blatter said. "They have weeks to solve this problem, and this is clearly a German problem."

Speaking on the same topic, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble stated, "We have to consider whether it will be possible to maintain the strict security system right to the end. We have a problem with security and access controls, as we want to avoid bottlenecks."

Even those who don't have match tickets might still want to travel to Germany for the festivals, concerts and jumbo-screen match broadcasts in cities all over the country. SoccerTimes will provide further details in a daily fan blog from Germany.

Chris Courtney is SoccerTimes European correspondent and lives in Brussels.