Ticket price stays for Peru match

Football fans have been asked to pay $500 for the covered stands and $300 in the uncovered area to see the Soca Warriors play their final match before heading out to Europe for the World Cup Finals in Germany.

This despite the protestations of Boynes who has beseeched Special Adviser to the TTFF Jack Warner to drop the price to enable all and sundry the opportunity to see the match.

However tickets for the match went on sale on Saturday for the 20,000 seats at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. For the first time, the tickets were allocated under a new system in which interested persons would text their request to Telios, the designated company which would select the persons eligible to purchase the tickets.

There has been a public outcry about the price of the tickets since fans were charged $200 and $100 for matches featuring Trinidad and Tobago during the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Minister Boynes had written to Warner reminding him that in the TTFF Budget for the Soca Warriors, provision was made to keep the price tickets affordable and that at $500 and $300, the TTFF stands to rake in more than eight million dollars.

But Warner replied saying that the team needed the money to offset losses incurred in the match against Iceland in London, England on Carnival Tuesday and to fund a warm-up match in Germany. Warner also stated that the money was also going to ensure that Peru field their best team against the Soca Warriors on May 10 and to purchase World Cup tickets for the friends and spouses of members of the team.

Yesterday Warner revealed that 41,000 requests for tickets have been received by Telios.

“People understood it’s a sacrifice they’re making. It’s an investment,” Warner said. “The first batch of tickets went out on Saturday last and we sold a little more than 50 percent,” he continued. “The second batch was sold yesterday at the CONCACAF Car Park. On match day, there are no tickets being sold here at the Stadium,” he said. “Our intention is to have a packed Stadium and to send a message to the world that, as a small nation, we too can do what big nations also do,” he said.

The FIFA vice-president who was embroiled in another ticket scandal earlier this year involving his travel agency Simpaul’s, was speaking at a function where Atlantic LNG presented $3million to the World Cup campaign.

He said the national football team will be contented with whatever financial support they receive as they prepare for next month’s World Cup.

“In some way we’re fortunate because our players are contented with little,” he said at the VIP Lounge, Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

Atlantic LNG’s president Rick Cape handed the $3 million cheque to the TTFF to offset costs incurred in the team’s preparation for the Finals. The TTFF had presented Government with a $79 million budget, with Cabinet approving $45 million. Last week the TTFF received $14.4 million of the $45million from government after Boynes said he was provided with documents attesting to its expenditure by the football organisation.