COMPANIES AND fans who spent hundreds of thousands of euros to attend World Cup matches have lost their money through a ticketing scam, a South African newspaper claimed yesterday.
The Sunday Timesreported that local and foreign fans, as well as some multinational companies, which spent nearly €600,000 between them on tickets, were refused at venues by Fifa officials because they made their purchases from unaccredited outlets.
Fifa distanced itself from the scam yesterday, saying fans had been warned since 2006 not to buy tickets from service providers which had not been officially accredited.
“We have published many warnings since 2006 that people who want to buy tickets should go buy tickets through Fifa channels,” Fifa spokesman Nicolas Maingot told reporters in Johannesburg.
Clifford Green, a Fifa-appointed lawyer, confirmed to the Sunday Times last week he had handed police a dossier of affidavits from seven companies, including South African petrochemical company Sasol, outlining their losses.
Sasol’s group communications manager Jacqui O’Sullivan confirmed a company called the Marcus Evans Group offered its business unit hospitality and ticket packages in 2008 for last year’s Confederations Cup and the World Cup.
She said a 50 per cent deposit for the hospitality package was put down, which came to just over €200,000, before it found out the company was not Fifa accredited.
“Sasol Oil informed them that unless the company secured the appropriate accreditation, the transactions for World Cup tickets and hospitality would not be concluded,” said Ms O’Sullivan, who added that Sasol had asked its lawyers to recover the money.
Another of the unaccredited companies named by Fifa in the affidavits it lodged with police was Norwegian service provider Euroteam, which has been selling tickets through a number of websites.
A Danish and German national who were selling tickets on behalf of the company were arrested at a hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg, last week after police found 70 tickets on the men earlier this month.
They made a court appearance, were granted bail of €1,600 each, and ordered to appear again at Randburg Magistrate’s court.
Fifa also said in a statement last week it was working with Scotland Yard to shut down several fraudulent and unauthorised websites.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s department of home affairs has revealed that more than 600 foreign travellers have been refused entry into South Africa since the beginning of the World Cup.