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Tag: socceroos

  • FIFA offers pool of lower-priced World Cup tickets following backlash

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    Football Australia will be able to issue $90 tickets to the Socceroos’ most loyal fans after FIFA agreed to slash the price of some World Cup tickets following a global backlash.

    Some fans will even get $US60 ($90) seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $US4,185 ($6,300).

    However, they are likely to only equate to around 500 tickets a match that Australia plays.

    FIFA said that the cheaper tickets would be made available for every game at the tournament, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations will decide how to distribute them to fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.

    The cheaper tickets, labelled “Supporter Entry Tier”, will be 10 per cent of the federation’s allocation — which itself will vary depending on stadium size.

    The “participant member association” allocation is 8 per cent of stadium capacity per country per match.

    Australia’s group games are in Vancouver (54,000 capacity), Seattle (69,000) and Santa Clara (71,000), meaning it will respectively receive 432, 552, and 568 $90 tickets for its matches against a UEFA play-off winner (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo), USA and Paraguay.

    So will its opponents. The next cheapest tickets are priced at around $400.

    FIFA’s climbdown follows meetings between senior officials in Doha this week, where federations are understood to have pushed back at the pricing model.

    Fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week on seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans that gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category.

    The co-hosts had pledged eight years ago — when they were bidding for the tournament — that hundreds of thousands of $US21 ($32) tickets would be made available.

    FIFA has also faced fierce criticism for a ticket pricing strategy that includes dynamic pricing, in which prices can increase due to demand, and acting as its own resale platform, taking a cut in the process.

    When the original pricing was announced Football Supporters Association Australia chairman Patrick Clancy said the prices were high but he thought many Socceroos’ fans would still buy them.

    “These are historically high prices — even the minimums,” he said.

    “I’m sure there will be some people who choose not (to go), and that’s absolutely fine, but I suspect the large majority will not be put off.”

    AAP/AP/PA

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  • Ronaldo set to avoid World Cup ban as FIFA confirms draw shake-up

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    Cristiano Ronaldo will likely avoid missing any Portugal matches at the men’s World Cup, despite receiving a red card in a qualifier.

    Ronaldo swung an arm and struck Ireland defender Dara O’Shea with an elbow during Portugal’s 2-0 loss in Dublin earlier this month.

    FIFA published a disciplinary verdict that imposed a three-match ban, judging Ronaldo’s action to be an example of “violent conduct”.

    But two of those matches are deferred for a one-year probation period.

    Ronaldo served a mandatory one-match ban when Portugal played its final qualifying match last week, a 9-1 win over Armenia that sealed its place at the World Cup in North America and Mexico.

    FIFA cited its disciplinary rules that allowed for parts of a sanction to be probationary, though it was rare in cases of a three-match ban for two of them to be deferred.

    Draw change

    Meanwhile, FIFA announced the World Cup draw would reward the four highest-ranked teams: Spain, Argentina, France and England.

    They will be placed in separate sections of a new tennis-style seeded tournament bracket.

    Defending champion Argentina’s passage to the semifinals appears easier. (Getty Images/Soccrates: Eric Verhoeven)

    The draw procedure means the top four teams in the latest rankings will — if they finish top of their respective round-robin groups — avoid each other until the semifinals of the June 11-July 19 tournament.

    The rule aims to maintain competitive balance in the expanded 48-team format.

    At previous World Cups, the path for teams into and through the knockout phase was decided by the group in which they were drawn.

    FIFA also revealed the four pots for the final draw, which takes place on December 6 AEDT in Washington.

    The Socceroos will be drawn from pot two.

    They are the lowest-ranked team in their 12-team pot, which also includes their continental rival Japan and world number 10 Croatia.

    Forty-two teams have already qualified for the World Cup.

    The other six entries will be decided in March when European and global play-off brackets are scheduled.

    Those teams all will come out of the draw pot of lowest-ranked teams.

    AP/Reuters

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