Conned By Ticket Syndicates   

Published on July 5, 2010 by TheNEWS   ·   No Comments

Fans at the World Cup walk into traps set by ticket fraudsters

Fans at the 2010 World Cup may have been thrilled at seeing their idols perform in flesh, but many are less than chuffed at falling victim of ticket scammers.

Although FIFA has dissociated itself from the ticketing scams rocking the World Cup, there are more questions than the answers provided based on the large number of fans denied access to various stadia hosting the games.

Nick Ngalo, an Ivorian football fan, and Richardson Mulinga, a Zimbabwean, were two of those who had the rotten luck to buy illegitimate tickets.

“I was shocked to the marrow when the officials sent me back from the gate. I had been on the queue for close to two hours only to be told that my ticket was  fake,” a frustrated Ngalo told TheNEWS at the Soccer City Stadium.

He had arrived the venue to watch the round of 16 match between Argentina and Mexico, when the World Cup Task Force pounced him. In the oppressively cold Johannesburg weather, Ngalo said he combed everywhere for an alternative ticket to watch Diego Maradona and his cast of stars, but ended up in his hotel room with a shredded dream.

Mulinga’s case was almost like that of a Nigerian fan, Kunle Benjamin that was arrested and sent to three years in jail for being in possession of stolen tickets in Pretoria. The Nigerian, according to information available to this magazine, was arrested after the Security Unit of 2010 Local Organising Committee, LOC, found 30 copies of stolen World Cup tickets on him during a stop and search exercise.

Having escaped from an imminent incarceration, Mulinga has reasons to thank his stars. “I was just lucky to escape from the officials. They wanted to lock me up at Port Elizabeth, saying I printed the tickets found on me, but I bought them from an agent,” he lamented.

The tickets scams, according to TheNEWS investigations, have bled companies to the tune of about R7 million. The companies include petro- chemical giants, Sasol. Nicolas Maingot, FIFA’s spokesman, described the ticket scandal as unfortunate and unacceptable. “We actually warned the fans ahead not to buy match tickets from service providers who were not accredited by FIFA. We have been singing this sad song since the experience FIFA had back in 2006 in Germany that interested tickets buyers should buy through FIFA channels,” Maingot said.

He said many unsuspecting fans have fallen prey and expects more to be swindled if they don’t desist from patronising people selling tickets, especially on the counters. Head of FIFA Business Development Unit, Straus Ralph, declared that FIFA will henceforth arrest fans carrying fake tickets, believing this action will lead to the arrest of the syndicates.

It expected that the special World Cup court, which has sentenced many offenders to jail terms, will be busy during the closing phase of the tournament.

Meanwhile, hosts of the 2010 World Cup plan a closing ceremony that would dwarf what millions of football enthusiasts saw during the opening ceremony on 11 June.

Football followers from Nigeria, rest of Africa and the World witnessed one of the best carnivals that ushered in the first World Cup in Africa when Shakira and her team wowed the audience with ‘Waka Waka’, The official song for the tournament.

While FIFA is planning to present the big stage for a grand final come 11 July, the Local organising Committee, LOC told TheNEWS that opera singer, Andrea Bocelli, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams would partner with South Africa’s Pretty Yende in a concert to draw curtains on the first ever World Cup on the African continent.

Adams, of the ‘Please forgive me’ fame, is on every lip as the 9 July concert titled ‘Celebrate Africa-The Grand Finale’ draws nearer.

Bocelli, known for his classic collaboration with Sarah Brighthman in the popular: ‘Time to say goodbye’, is scheduled to treat visitors from across the world to his ballads at the closing ceremony slated to kick off at the Johannesburg Dome from 8.30 pm.

—Tunde Oyedele/Johannesburg