Germans pledge ticket changes
John Mehaffey

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - German 2006 World Cup organisers promised to operate a radically different ticketing system after rows of empty seats and chaotic online sales at this year's tournament in Japan and South Korea.

'We can guarantee that we will make major changes,' German local organising committee vice-president Fedor Radmann told a news conference. 'We can guarantee that there will be many changes to the ticketing situation which was not too efficient. Maybe it was too complicated.' Radmann said it was still too early to talk about details. 'We will have to come to the end of the tournament then we will know what changes have to be made,' he said. 'It's far too early. We will discuss mutually with FIFA what changes will be made.

Television pictures of tens of thousands of empty seats and the difficulties encountered in acquiring tickets on FIFA's website have angered the co-hosts of Asia's first World Cup.

The Japanese and South Korean organising committees are scheduled to meet officials from the world governing body FIFA and their British-based ticketing agents Byrom on Wednesday to discuss ticketing problems.

TICKET PRICING

South Korean organisers have blamed the number of empty seats at stadiums to Byrom's inability to see tickets in the international market. The company has said setbacks with ticket distribution were mainly due to delays in receiving vital information from the host countries' organisers. Radmann said Germany also wanted to ensure that tickets should be priced at a level that everybody could afford. 'We will definitely keep one category to have prices that will be affordable to everyone,' he said.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily said he was confident Germany could successfully handle any hooligan problems. 'We are confident that the security can be mastered although the situation is very different from Japan and Korea with shorter distances,' he said.

Organising committee president Franz Beckenbauer, who both captained and coached West Germany to victory in the World Cup final, said he thought television screens at stadiums was a good idea. 'It's very good for the spectators who have paid for their seats and are used to watching replays at home,' he said. 'But when people see a referee has made a wrong call there could be rioting. Perhaps we should avoid showing controversial scenes on the big screen.'

Replays of incidents which could provoke crowd trouble were halted during the England's opening match against Sweden on June 2.

The 2006 Cup will kick off on June 9 with the final on July 10. The tournament is provisionally scheduled to open in Munich with the final in Berlin.