Doubts set aside as FIFA and Brazil confirm all six venues for Confederations Cup next year
BRASILIA: All six projected venues for next year’s Confederations Cup – warm-up for the 2014 World Cup – have been confirmed, despite doubts about whether certain stadia – Recife in particular – would be ready writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
That gesture of faith in the Brazilian organisers’ promises was issued by world federation FIFA as it confirmed Confed Cup tournament staging details including ticketing information.
Details of how ticketing will work – and the favourable treatment offered to Brazilian fans – set the standard which will be adopted for sales and category availability of World Cup tickets in 2014.
Having set this precedent for discounted tickets to the less-well-off, FIFA may find it difficult to resist demands for similar ticketing sales strategies at some of its other tournaments.
The details were confirmed jointly by the Brazilian 2014 World Cup organisers and FIFA at Sao Paulo’s Museu do Futebol.
Those attending included COL president Jose Maria Marin, former star striker and COL management board member Ronaldo Nazario de Lima, Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo and his executive secretary Luis Fernandes as well FIFA representatives including marketing director and head of ticketing Thierry Weil plus director of communications Walter de Gregorio.
The Confederations Cup runs from June 15-30 and will feature four past and present World Cup in hosts Brazil, Italy, Spain and Uruguay.
Also competing will be continental champions Mexico {CONCACAF), Japan (Asia) and Tahiti (Oceania). The African representatives will be known after the Nations Cup finals in South Africa in January and February.
Some 830,000 tickets will be available for the 16 matches in the six confirmed venues of Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Main concern over venues had focused on Recife’s Arena Pernambuco. Only 64 percent of the construction has been completed just eight months from the tournament, according to contractor Odebrecht Infraestructura.
Tickets go on sale two days after the draw on December 1 in Sao Paulo. The cheapest Category Four tickets are reserved for Brazilian residents and 50,000 of those will be among the tickets on sale during the first phase.
Students, people over the age of 60 and recipients of the social programme Bolsa Familia will be entitled to receive a 50 per cent discount on the ticket face value.
Over-60s resident in Brazil will be entitled to receive a 50 per cent discount for category 1-3 tickets. In addition, a certain allocation of category 1-3 tickets will be exclusively offered to Visa card holders worldwide in a pre-sale phase from November 21 to 30.
Fans may buy up to six individual tickets for a maximum of 10 matches or purchase a maximum of six specific series comprising several matches in one venue. As Brasilia will host only the opening match it has no venue-specific series.
For the group stage, tickets for international supporters will be sold in US dollars ranging from $60 to $140 and tickets for Brazilians will be sold in Brazilian reals ranging from BRL57 in category 4 to BRL266 in category 1.
Discounted category 4 tickets for first-round group matches for Brazilian residents will be sold at BRL28.5.
At least one per cent of the ticketing total will be made available for disabled fans. These have been set at category 3 prices. Disabled customers also have the option of requesting a complimentary ticket for a companion assistant.
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