Last week, FIFA admitted sales of tickets in African had not been the most encouraging. Jerome Valcke said only 40,000 tickets have been sold in countries in the continent outside of South Africa. A FIFA representative said that only 11,300 people in Africa made ticket purchases, out of a total of 230,000 foreign fans.
It is quite obvious what factors caused the poor sales in Africa- Internet. Tickets were to be purchased online with electronic cards. I expected FIFA to have done its research and realized in advance that bandwidth was yet to hit majority of households in Africa. Alternatively I think FIFA could have taken advantage of other payment options such as the Safaricom‘s M-pesa, Zain‘s ZAP, MTN‘s Mobile Money or e-tranzact. I can boldly say these channels would have provided FIFA with more revenue than it has already basketed. It is good news however that over 2.5 million tickets have been sold out of 3 million available for the World Cup, which begins in a couple of days. Too bed not too many of these tickets were bought by Africans.
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