{"id":2892,"date":"2009-06-21T00:14:31","date_gmt":"2009-06-20T22:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=2892"},"modified":"2009-07-10T16:50:46","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T14:50:46","slug":"fifa-frees-up-confederation-cup-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/world-cup-2010\/fifa-frees-up-confederation-cup-tickets\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA frees up Confederation Cup tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Given the embarrassing start to the Confederations Cup, with a near-empty Rustenburg stadium last Sunday, FIFA is to hand out free tickets to schools, soccer clubs and youth organisations to ensure that the remaining matches are played to full stadia, reports the Cape Argus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

FIFA Media Head Nicolas Maingot has said that “And if we look at previous Confederations Cup tournaments, South Africa is not doing badly at all.\u00a0\u00a0 He compared average tickets sales per match to the 2003 Confederations Cup in France in 2003 at almost 31 000, and over 37 000 in Germany in 2005.\u00a0\u00a0 Current Confederations Cup attendance is 33 170 per match on average.<\/p>\n

Trade union federation COSATU has encouraged South Africans to buy Confederations Cup tickets.\u00a0 “The low turnouts at some matches have been a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved upon” said COSATU spokesperson Patrick Craven, probably one of the more intelligent statements made by the trade union in a\u00a0long time, as reported in The Times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Rich Mkhondo, spokesperson of the Local Organising Committee, has continued his bizarre media comments:\u00a0\u00a0 “We have informed the people and marketed and organised this event, but we can’t force people to buy tickets.”\u00a0\u00a0 He confirmed that the LOC would not cut ticket prices for the Confederations Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the embarrassing start to the Confederations Cup, with a near-empty Rustenburg stadium last Sunday, FIFA is to hand out free tickets to schools, soccer clubs and youth organisations to ensure that the remaining matches are played to full stadia, reports the Cape Argus. FIFA Media Head Nicolas Maingot has said that “And if we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,1276,18,128,1582,1583,1557,1581,32389],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t