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FIFA has redistributed about 11,000 match tickets meant for Nigeria, due to the apathy of the Nigerian public, who refused to buy the World Cup match tickets as at the close of the exercise on February 7, 2014.
The implication is that only very few Nigerian fans will cheer the Super Eagles in their three Group F matches in Cuiaba, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
This stark revelation was made yesterday by Head of Marketing of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Idris Adama.
Adama disclosed that only 400 Nigerian fans had purchased match tickets by the deadline, prompting FIFA to reallocate the unsubscribed tickets to fans in Asia, Americas and Europe.
He said that 11, 500 tickets, representing eight percent of each stadium capacity, was allocated to every participating country via the universal FIFA Pamas website.
”It is unfortunate that our share of about 11,000 tickets was cancelled because of the refusal of our people to buy the tickets. We sent news releases and even did event in Lagos to create awareness, but people did not respond. Only 400 real fans bought the tickets as at midnight of February 7, which was the deadline. As I speak, our three group matches have sold out and whjat ordinary should be our share of the tickets to pick up have been allotted to fans from other parts of the world waiting for the tickets to be withdrawn from the African participating nations,” Adama said
FIFA recently announced about 125,465 fans in the USA, the highest in the world outside Brazil with 906,433 were allotted the World Cup tickets, while Colombia (60,231), Germany (55,666), Argentina (53,809), England (51,222), Australia (40,446), France (34,971), Chile (32,189) and Mexico (30,238) were in the top 10.
Adama said that implication of the public apathy is that Nigerians, who are suddenly thinking of going to Brazil for the World Cup will not even get the visa as the Brazilian government has directed its embassies worldwide to make provision of match ticket as condition for issuance of visa.
”Except you are going to Brazil for other business, you can’t get a visa without a World Cup ticket, because it is one of the conditions the Brazilian government has set for its embassies globally. You need evidence of a ticket, either physically or approved proof from FIFA that you have purchased a World Cup ticket. We will have to wait till the next balloting in April which is based on first come, first served basis,” observed the NFF marketing chief.
The travel duration and the anticipated huge cost of attending the World Cup in addition to other logistics might have informed the passive mood in Nigeria.
Intending visitors to Brazil, usually have to travel to Johannesburg before connecting the west bound flight to Sao Paulo. Apart from that, travelling within Brazil is expensive and mainly by flight, because the World Cup venues are far apart and could not be navigated by road.
It is not clear how many members of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club headed by Dr Rafiu Oladipo are holding valid match tickets.
Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan gave the club N50 million to enable its members travel in large number to cheer the national team at the World Cup when he was invested as the Grand Patron of the body in Abuja.
