World Cup fans face delay in allocation of tickets

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but there’s been a delay in the run-up to next summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

This time it’s the ticket-allocation system that’s been hit, joining previous snafus that have organizers running behind on everything from stadium construction to transportation infrastructure upgrades.

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body and the organization that oversees the World Cup, said Tuesday it has had to delay the draw for tickets in order to allow Brazilian authorities to supervise the procedure. That means the applicants who applied for the first distribution of tickets will not know if they have been successful until Nov. 10, a week later than expected.

By that date all applicants will be informed by email or text message whether their applications were successful.

As a result, the start of the next sales period has also been pushed back, to Nov. 11. Approximately 1 million tickets will be available in the two phases of the first distribution period; 6.2 million applications have already been received.

The second period will conclude Nov. 28. The draw for team-specific tickets will then follow.

“As the next sales period is on a first-come, first-served basis, it is essential that all those applicants for tickets from the first period have been informed on the status of their application by the time we reopen sales,” said Thierry Weil, FIFA’s director of marketing. “We cannot risk any fan not being aware of his/her success before we put the remaining tickets on the market. Obviously, our priority is to ensure every applicant has an equal chance of success.”

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