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.
Dear fans. We have noted some of your comments, re: your tickets. When you placed your order, a message indicating not all seats would be located next to each other did appear, before confirmation of your purchase. Unfortunately we will not be able to modify your order.
1/2— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) May 20, 2019
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
Do you really think that people traveling from other continents speaking all kinds of different languages are going to be satisfied with this? What happens in the case of an emergency at a stadium?
— Keith Naas (@knaas) May 20, 2019
FIFA selling Women's World Cup tickets, but not making it so the tickets sitting next to each other? WWC off to a fantastic start already. I bought tickets to the World Cup in Russia and not only didn't have a problem, but was able to return and exchange tickets easily #noexcuses
— Santiago Almada (@santiaalmada) May 20, 2019
One fan even called the number provided by the account, only to be told that there was nothing they could do.
Well, I called that number earlier and was told there was nothing I could do other than asking people to move once we got to the match or selling my tickets!
— Ian Cox (@ij_cox) May 20, 2019
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.
FIFA and the Local Organising Committee are confident the problems will be solved and the fans will be able to enjoy the matches as they envisaged.
— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) May 21, 2019
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.
