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FIFA to give away tickets to fans to help fill stadiums

FIFA will give away free tickets to soccer fans in South Africa in an attempt to fill the thousands of empty seats at the Confederations Cup.

“There will be a number of complimentary tickets actually handed to institutions, institutions which have been very supportive of the event,” FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said yesterday. “It’s a gesture from FIFA. It’s a joint initiative from FIFA and the organizing committee to basically offer to those who maybe didn’t have a chance to attend the games so far to go there.”

Maingot said schools and local authorities will be among those receiving the tickets.

“In terms of numbers, I cannot give details,” Maingot said. “It very much depends on a game-by-game basis.”

After a near sellout in the opening match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, matches in Rustenburg, Pretoria and Bloemfontein were all played in stadiums nowhere near capacity.

Tickets at this year’s Confederations Cup range from US$10 to as high as US$200 for the final, which is out of the reach of many South Africans. The average attendance for the games so far, however, is in line with the overall average achieved at the previous three Confederations Cup tournaments.

“Ticket sales have gone very well,” said Rich Mkhondo, the 2010 World Cup organizing committee spokesman. “We still encourage most South Africans [to] attend these games. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity which no one would like to miss.”

There are eight games remaining in the group stage of the eight-team tournament, which is being used as a warm-up for next year’s World Cup. Following that, there are two semi-final matches, a consolation game and the final.

Maingot said that, so far, the free tickets were only for group matches.

“We are only targeting at the next coming games,” he said. “We are thinking group stage at first.”

Hosts South Africa, who played in a nearly full stadium in the tournament’s opener, played their second match Wednesday against New Zealand in Rustenburg while Spain faced Iraq in Bloemfontein.

Also yesterday, South Africa’s trade union federation said the low attendances were embarrassing.

“The low turnouts at some matches have been a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved upon if we are to demonstrate to the world our passion for soccer, and to remove any doubts about our commitment to the 2010 World Cup tournament,” spokesman Patrick Craven said in a statement.

Also See: Iraq soccer team proves a unifying force
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