Ticket Touts Rip-Off Fans

*By Tshimologo Boitumelo
Correspondent | Monday June 30, 2008 00:00

Tickets to the event were sold out long before kick-off. Early this year, the touts made another huge killing at the African Cup of Nations in Ghana. At such events, it is the innocent who suffer when the scalpers take charge.

In Vienna, Austria last week, the police seized 300 tickets from scalpers who made mark-ups of close to 200 percent. 'I watched police arrest fans at a quarter final match between Spain and Italy at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.

Even UEFA, which seems to fancy itself as a reputable organisation in terms of ticket controls- were left stunned,' said Charles Osei-Asibey of Happy 989FM in Ghana who was media coordinator for the African football showpiece. He was part of a contingent that travelled to Vienna at the invitation of Supersport International to watch the Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.

He said that in Ghana, touts grabbed tickets and sold them at double the price. 'We encountered that problem in Ghana too. The  government of Ghana queried that the price of US$10 that we had set was too high for an average Ghanaian. Touts got the bulk of tickets and made them costly for people,' he explained.

When the police pounced on the Euro tickets last week, UEFA official Willim Gailard addressed the media to lamenting about touts. He promised that his organisation will continue the fight against scalping as it hurts fans who can not afford black-market prices. The problem was that different countries had different laws, he explained.

But the touts are there because the buyers are available. Ponga Liwewe, African Marketing Manager of SuperSport International warns: 'It is a problem that will continue to afflict every major football event including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. People always want to make a quick buck when these events are staged'.

There is always a question of price structure and whether it is affordable to the paying fans. In this year, the government was adamant that charging US$10 for two games was way too high for many people. When the price was reduced to half the amount, the touts were in a position to buy more and resell at inflated prices. An average Ghanaian earns roughly US$150 a month.

At the Euro 2008, tickets with face value of 110 Euros sold at well over 400 Euros. Many fans arrived in Vienna without match tickets, and these are captive market for touts.

Harshd Raila, a taxi driver in Vienna does not hide his wish: 'If I had gotten as many as possible, I would have sold them for 400 Euro because there is a demand for them. I did not watch a single game because the one ticket I had, I sold it'.

It is not clear how UEFA works out the pricing structure. But in Ghana, the structure was based on anticipated numbers of visitors to the country. Ghana expected to host over 1.2 million spectators but got only 800,000. Ghana did not run at a loss even though the ticket prices were lower than Egypt 2006 which charged $6 per match. These prices exclude corporate hospitality tickets which are very costly.

Fans planning to travel to African Cup of Nations in 2010 in Angola and the World Cup the same year in South Africa, can expect to pay huge sums of money for tickets. It is estimated that the tickets for Angola 2010 might be priced as high as US$25.

Victor Silva of Novo Jornal in Luanda, Angola says: 'The Association plans to make tickets more affordable. But as for now, there is no clear indication as to how much exactly fans will pay'. World Cup 2010 tickets will range between R136 to R60,00.

According to the Local Organising Committee Website, they are expected to go on sale in February 2009. About 3 million tickets will be printed for sale.Botswana, despite a 4-0 dousing by Ivory Coast is still in the running for both Angola and South Africa 2010. Qualification to any of the competitions will trigger ticket interest from local fans. And the issue of tickets touts would crop in.

*(Tshimologo Boitumelo was in Vienna, Austria at the invitation of SuperSport International (Pty) Ltd.)