FIFA has come under fire from hundreds of fans attending the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France for the way the organisation has allocated tickets.

While tickets have been on sale for months, FIFA has only recently allowed fans to download their purchased tickets online—18 days out from the first match.

Fans who were able to access the FIFA website in order to download their tickets in the past 24 hours quickly realised that some of their tickets were not seated together.

The official FIFA Women’s World Cup account said that “an exception could be made for parents whose seats are not next to the seats of their underage children,” but no guarantees were made.

Fans are, understandably, furious and bewildered at what appears to be a completely avoidable situation.

https://twitter.com/paulina_lemos/status/1130519066333069313

One fan even called the number provided by the account, only to be told that there was nothing they could do.

The FIFA account has since tweeted that “the issues were faced by less than 1% of fans requesting tickets for the semi finals and the final,” and that the problem should be sorted out soon.

Combined with the infamous inaccessibility of FIFA’s website for fans wanting to purchase tickets and find out more information about this year’s tournament, this recent debacle casts more doubt over the way FIFA organises and promotes women’s football.

Fans travelling from overseas should check their tickets online and contact FIFA if you have experienced any issues.

SAMANTHA LEWIS
Samantha is a writer and social media manager for Beyond 90. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Optus Sport, matildas.com.au, Inside Sport, and The Women's Game. She's spent years covering the Matildas, W-League, NWSL, and NPLW, as well as a variety of other topics including the World Cup, Iran's stadium ban, and the history of Australian women's football.