Sunday, May 04, 2014

Trying to get a ticket for the World Cup

I have no life. But I have a job where I make good money and have the opportunity of taking days off. It is in this context that I have wanted to find a ticket for a World Cup match. I had my eyes set on Chile-Spain in the legendary Maracana stadium, and applied for tickets through the somewhat random FIFA ticket process. Of course I did not get a ticket. Guys like me never do. But of course, I am still looking, and if you search for "World Cup tickets" on google you will find that there are apparently a lot of tickets. On a ticket sales site I have found a ticket for 497 Euros!
Would I pay that for the ticket. Absolutely yes. But have I done it? No.
I am in doubt of the ticket being real. I wrote FIFA and asked whether this could be real, and their message was "Thank you for contacting Fifa Ticketing Service. Please be advised that the only authorized ticket selling platform is www.FIFA.com. Any tickets purchased on any other website will not be honored."
Fair enough, and pretty clear. Not long ago I bought a ticket for a Premier League match on one of these sites, and was told at the stadium that it could not be used because someone had purchased many tickets with the same credit card (I paid for another ticket). I did nevertheless get the money back from the site, which apologized, which makes me think that they are, if not legit, at least honest about selling their tickets (At the same time, I am impressed about the club, where it is not difficult to limit how many tickets are bought on the same credit card). I would buy a ticket for Chile-Spain right now for 497 Euros. But my fear is getting there, traveling all the way to Brazil, and stand there as an idiot when they tell me that the ticket "will not be honoured", even if they give me my money back.

FIFA limits how many tickets you can buy. But how come there are so many sites offering tickets as well? If tickets can only be bought via the FIFA website, isn't what all these sites are doing illegal? How come FIFA does not warn even more about these sites?
It is not about the money. It is about getting into the match. And as it seems to me, there is no way to getting in by dealing with FIFA, although there seem to be a lot of tickets around.
I want a ticket.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey mate what's your email address I have spare Rio tickets

El Erik said...

I inquired to FIFA on the following site, which was offering tickets: http://www.easysportstickets.com/sports/world-cup-2014/spain-vs-chile-tickets-18-06-2014

Their reply was as follows:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting the FIFA Ticketing Centre.

No other websites or parties have any rights to legitimately sell Tickets for the Competition. If you see any other website offering Tickets for the Competition you can be certain that this is not a legitimate sales channel. Please note that any Tickets obtained from any other source (for example, unauthorised intermediaries such as ticket brokers, internet auctions, internet ticket agents, internet or other unofficial ticket exchange platforms)can be automatically rendered void and invalid and do not entitle the Ticket Holder to enter the Stadium or to any refund or further compensation. Upon request from FIFA, Ticket Holders must explain how, from whom, for what consideration and from where they obtained their Tickets.

The company you have identified does not have any legitimate tickets to sell, and is not authorized to sell tickets. We have reported them to consumer protection authorities, and suggest that you do the same. Acquisition of tickets from such sites poses the risks that are identified on www.FIFA.com/tickets on the page identified as “Authorized Sales Channels.”

All information about ticket availability and sales phases is posted on www.FIFA.com/tickets.

Kind Regards

El Erik said...

And this is the message I got from www.easysportstickets.com
when I inquired whether their tickets were real:

Dear customer,

I understand you are looking for tickets to the following match,
to which we have a limited number available now.

www.easysportstickets.com

Valid tickets

As informed on our site, we are a company reselling tickets in the secondary market, being now the biggest one in Europe after 16 years doing it. We are getting all tickets from the official suppliers so we guarantee them as official and original ones.

VIP Gold/Platinum are our best alongside seats, as close as possible to the pitch and the half line, and the best view of the match (VIP Platinum is 1st floor and VIP Gold is 1st or 2nd floor). These tickets do not include any package.
Category 1 can be any seat alongside, any tier or side of the pitch, not necessarily central.
Category 2 can be any seat located in a corner of the stadium.
Category 3 can be any seat behind the goal, any tier and either end.
Best Available tickets are the best available price, and can be anywhere in the stadium.
Away section tickets will be with the visiting team supporters, and this section is usually located in the corner or behind the goal.

If you have a special request for a more specific location within the category you have selected, we recommend you write a comment in the comment box, and we will do our best to match your request.
Shipping:

Tickets will be delivered up to two weeks before the event to your home address, be it local or abroad. You can include the shipping address in the specified shipping address section when placing an order. In the case of a late release of tickets from the official supplier, we will contact you to request a shipping address in Brazil, such as a hotel address. This is also an option if you are going to be travelling (you can let us know your arrival date and hotel details). We ship tickets exclusively with registered express courier companies, the safest way to ensure you receive your tickets on time, and at your door.

If you decide you want the tickets, please order ASAP, because the price will be higher soon, and the availability is limited for this highly demanded event!

For anything else, please contact us by e-mail or by phone.

Best regards,

Sales Department
www.easysportstickets.com

El Erik said...

So let us see:
- FIFA says you can only buy through them, and that they will not let people in with tickets bought anywhere else. But with the amount of tickets being resold, there must be tickets out there. Do they check all tickets? I doubt it. But in a random check, I guess you may not get in. Is it worth running such a risk...?
- Surely stadiums will not be filled with this obscure procedure and apparent huge reselling.
- I doubt FIFA makes money on its ticket sales. They make it on TV deals, so this would make the whole ticketing issue a low priority for FIFA. So while there will be empty seats, they can probably count on filling them all up by people showing up at the stadium... When I was in Ukraine for the EUro, there was no problem getting tickets at the stadium for every first round match.
- The people from Easysportstickets are lying: the tickets are not from official suppliers.
- I assume they are either reselling individual tickets or have in some way managed to buy bulk (something that should be impossible, but likely FIFA does not care about). In either case, they probably count on most of them getting in, because they are not checked. If some do not manage to get in, they have already made enough money to pay back to the poor idiot who went all the way to Brasil.

- It seems risky to me. It could be a win win or a lose lose. But WHY does it have to be risky to try to get a world cup ticket?!!!????

Anonymous said...

Did you completely disregard my comment?

If you want to talk tickets tell me your email and we will discuss

neha modi said...

thanks sir Fifa worldcup 2014 tickets info

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