Technical experts from the 2010 FIFA World Cup organisers were working round the clock to improve the World Cup ticket selling system to avoid any future inconveniences following Thursday’s chaos which left one person dead as people tried to purchase tickets, FIFA said Friday.

Due to high demand for over-the-counter ticket sales at both ticketing centres and First National Bank branches when they went on sale across the country on Thursday, chaos erupted at some of the centres.

There were scenes of excitement, anger, frustration and outright chaos at many ticketing centres when problems emerged with the online system.

Police had to be called in some instances to restore order and prevent people from being crushed in the queues.

In the capital Pretoria’s Brooklyn Mall, tempers flared when the police and security officials sprayed football fans, who were pushing in the queue, with pepper spray.

In the Cape Town queue, a 64-year-old man died of an apparent heart attack while standing as number 565 in the line.

FIFA said more than 53,000 tickets were sold in the first eight hours of Thursday. By 4 pm, a total of 23 matches were sold out, including the opening game which will be played in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium on 11 June.

Officials from FIFA, Match and FNB said they would do what they can to avoid a repeat of Thursday’s chaos.

"We want to extend out apologies to the general public, who tried to obtain tickets, and we want to thank them for their patience and understanding. We have already been able to identify the challenges," Match boss Jaime Bryom said.

Match is Fifa’s ticketing and hospitality partner for the tournament.

As a result of the overwhelming ticket demand, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee also decided to extend the operating hours at some of the ticket centres and FNB branches.

More than 550,000 tickets went on sale at 11 FIFA ticketing offices in the nine host cities. Some 100,000 of these tickets are reserved for South Africans.

 

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