School children and soldiers, you’re out of luck. No free tickets to the World Cup.
Organizers had considered giving away tickets in order to fill empty seats at stadiums during the tournament, but abandoned the idea as not practical.
“Despite all our efforts, we realize there will be no-shows,” German organizing committee vice president Horst Schmidt said Saturday. “We tried to devise a system but were not very successful. We thought of soldiers, clubs, schools, but it’s impossible to organize. They have to wait, and then there may not be any tickets.
“So we’ll use volunteers who do not have any specific thing to do. Anything else is not feasible.”
At the 2002 World Cup, organizers were criticized because tens of thousands of tickets weren’t used. For this World Cup, which begins Friday, the criticism has been that too many tickets have been reserved for sponsors, affiliates of FIFA and organizers. Security measures put in place to limit counterfeiting and ticket scalping also have come under fire.
“I have been involved in many World Cups, and I must say this World Cup is extremely well-prepared,” said Lennart Johansson, the chairman of the FIFA World Cup organizing committee.
More than 98 percent of the more than 3 million tickets that initially were available have been sold, putting this World Cup on pace to be the second-best attended behind the 1994 World Cup in the United States – which drew nearly 3.6 million fans.
About 64 percent of the World Cup tickets were reserved for sponsors, affiliates, competing teams and non-competing soccer federations. Since May 15, 11,000 of those tickets were put on sale to the general public and sold, Schmidt said.
England: Peter Crouch scored three times and Michael Owen got his first goal in 2006, leading England over Jamaica 6-0 in its final warm-up match.
Owen scored England’s fourth goal in the 32nd minute at Old Trafford in the last home match for coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who will leave the team after the World Cup.
Mexico: Ricardo Lavolpe played it safe with his biggest star, holding Jared Borgetti out of a scrimmage against an overmatched regional team from Mexico’s host city in Göttingen.
Spain: Raul Gonzalez ended a seven-month goal drought as Spain beat Egypt 2-0 in a World Cup warm-up and extended its unbeaten streak to 21 games.
