£14,000 World Cup packages to sell outBy Rosie Murray-West
Telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 19/01/2006)
Top-price corporate packages for this summer's World Cup are expected to sell out over the next few days, as football fans protest about the number of tickets given to companies.
The most expensive packages, including dinner and tickets but excluding flights to Germany and hotel rooms, cost about £14,000 for entry to all England games. That works out at almost £5,000 a match if the team is knocked out at the group stage.
Peter Csanadi, of World Cup hospitality partner iSe-Hospitality, said that he expected all hospitality tickets - 10 per cent of the total ticket allocation for games - to sell out.
The allocation of corporate hospitality packages has caused fury among fans who cannot get their hands on any tickets. Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, said that most of the people who took up the packages were not real football fans.
"I doubt many of them would be at Hartlepool on a wet December evening," he said. "For a lot of them it is a status thing. It would be interesting to know how many matches they usually watch."
He said that the large number of tickets sold for corporate hospitality "feeds the black market". On online auction site eBay yesterday, bidding had reached £1,800 for two seats for the final. The highest official price for one is just over £400.
Eight per cent of tickets for each of England's three group games, against Paraguay, Trinidad and Sweden, will be given to the Football Association and allocated to members of its fan club. Other tickets are being sold through Fifa ballots.
