World Cup Portal to Offer Ticket Resale and Transfer Options
March 14, 2006
Germany's World Cup Organizing Committee (OK) will open a ticket portal on the official FIFA World Cup Web site on March 27 which will allow tickets to be returned or exchanged by ticket buyers to nominated individuals.
"We are making good on our promise to provide a service-oriented and non-bureaucratic solution," Horst R. Schmidt, the OK vice president, said in a statement in reference to complaints regarding the red-tape surrounding ticket allocation, returns and swaps. "However, we expect that 99 percent of all ticket holders will make use of their tickets and go to the stadium themselves, and the ticket portal will only be in place for exceptional cases."
Considering how hard it has been to get hold of the tickets, he could be right. Those fans who really can't make it to the World Cup, however, will have the chance to make sure the tickets are used and know that the effort to obtain them wasn't a waste.
But in true OK and FIFA style, the process is not exactly easy. For those fans selling the tickets back to the OK to resell or transferring tickets to a named recipient, the applicant must go through an online form in the customer self-service section.
Tickets can be resold and redistributed
Customers who want to put their tickets up for resale can do so by following the instructions in the appropriate area of the site, without providing any reasons for the return.
Once a purchase request for the specific ticket is made, the seller gets back the price he paid for the ticket in the first place. For the original ticket holder, the resale is free of any fees.
Released tickets will be offered in the resale for face value plus an additional administrative fee of up to 15 percent of the face value but which may not exceed the maximum amount of 15 euros ($17.86).
For those wanting to transfer tickets to another fan, a set of criteria must first be met.
The OK and FIFA have set out seven possibilities for transfer:
- Transfer within the family and partnerships
- Illness of ticket holder / visitor
- Ticket holder or visitor get no visa to travel to Germany
- Ticket holder or visitor is prohibited from traveling
- Force majeure (e.g. acts of war, earthquake, terrorism, political upheavals, epidemics, natural catastrophes)
- Death of ticket holder or visitor or case of death within the family of ticket holder / visitor
- Hardship case
Even if the reason for the ticket exchange fits any of these seven points, further documentation may still be required.
The OK has made it clear that tickets may only be returned or transferred to another person through the official channels on the portal and may not be exchanged directly between two customers online without OK consent. Any person transferring a ticket will be liable to a 10 euro fee.
"This ticket portal is a platform intended to fight back against the black market and, at the same time, it takes into account the high security requirements of the FIFA World Cup," Schmidt said, adding that the conditions left no acceptable or justifiable reason to sell or purchase tickets via other channels.
The portal will be opened in two time windows. From March 27 to April 9 and from May 1 all the way to two days prior the match day on the ticket.