Applications for tickets for Trinidad and Tobago’s Matches as of January 22 2006
Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, January 22, 2006
The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation wishes to advise the public that following a request from fans for a total of 34,777 tickets for the country’s three Group B matches in June’s 2006 World Cup in Germany, the FIFA has in return allocated to the TTFF as a qualifying member the total sum of 10,769 tickets.
The Federation is also noting that from this allocation of tickets by FIFA as a qualifying member, there have been no pre-sold tickets and successful applicants shall be informed by Thursday January 26, 2006 of the status of their applications and the next steps to follow in the pursuit of their approved tickets. Applicants are advised to follow the advice given within the suggested schedule as failure to do so shall result in the automatic loss of the said approval.
On being advised of the approved purchasable tickets, the purchaser must submit the name, passport number, date of birth and nationality of each ticket holder and pay 50% of the total cost of the approved tickets by February 2nd, 2006 with the final 50% to be paid by March 2nd, 2006.
”There shall be a second allocation of tickets on February 3rd, 2006, in the event any approved purchaser fails to meet the February 2nd deadline.
A special TTFF Ticket Bureau has been established in the TT/Germany 2006 Ltd office at 102 D St Vincent St, Port of Spain for the processing of all successful applications. The office contact numbers are as follows : Telephone - 627 1029 ; 625 8607; Fax - 627 3304.
As stated by FIFA, “Tickets will be personalised for security reasons. This measure is intended to support the basic principle of a fair and open sales procedure. It will also serve as an effective deterrent to black market trading. However, the embedded chip will store access information only. Personal information such as names will not be stored.”
FIFA further adds in a Ticket Overview previously released to the public via its official website: “Details of the tickets (price, category and number) made available by the Participating Member Association will be made available in due course by the Participating Member Association. If a Member Association’s team does not progress to all stages of the Second Round, the right to use Conditional Tickets for Second Round matches following the elimination of that Team will be lost and a refund will be provided.
Member Associations are free to choose which methods of payment will be made available to fans buying tickets from the Member Associations.
While FIFA states that the Federation knows in advance how much tickets it receives as a qualified member, the Federation in turn has to submit its official request based on numbers received from applicants along with other information.
Special Advisor to the TTFF, Jack Warner left the events leading up to the opening of the African Nation’s Cup in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday in order to be here for the process of the ticket allocations for applicants here, along with General Secretary Richard Groden on Saturday evening. Prior to that he also visited St Lucia for one day on Friday for the initiation of their US$600,000 FIFA Goal Project training centre. Warner, in his capacity as CONCACAF President, leaves on Tuesday for the closing stages of the CONCACAF Women’s Under 20 qualifying tournament in Mexico.
Total Ticket request from the public for the Trinidad and Tobago matches
Cat 1 Cat 2 Cat 3 Cat 4 Total
Sweden 833 2100 3212 5459 11604
England 853 2114 3212 5499 11678
Paraguay 804 2077 3283 5331 11495
2490 6291 9707 16289 34777
FIFA Allocation to the TTFF as a Qualifying Member Association
Cat 1 Cat 2 Cat 3 Cat 4 Wheelchair + Escort Total
Sweden 920 1,380 1,339 956 5 4,600
England 586 875 733 729 6 2,929
Paraguay 660 960 864 748 8 3,240
2,166 3,215 2,936 2,433 19 10,769
· Seats in Category 1 are generally located alongside the pitch.
· Seats in Category 2 are generally located adjacent to Category 1.
· Seats in Category 3 are generally located behind the goals or on the corners.
· Seats in Category 4 are generally located behind the goals or on the corners.
Warner comments in St Lucia
Warner, in a response to the St Lucian media following the initiation of their Goal Project, on questions of the reports in T&T about ticketing for its World Cup matches, said: “I have been fighting for T&T football for over 25 years. I am not trying to make this about Jack Warner but there is nobody who has made a contribution to T&T football more than I but I have done this because I have always felt inferior to be a Vice President of FIFA and to be a deputy chairman of a FIFA finance committee among my colleagues in FIFA as someone who comes from a country that has never qualified for FIFA’s highest competition. When we couldn’t quality, I at one time beg the Government to host one which we did successfully in 2001. The fact is I had passion for qualifying. I felt it would have a spin off effect in a positive way for the country and so on. As such we went on to qualify and as we qualified, we had two weeks of honeymoon. I was King, they said Jack for Prime Minister and so on and then it was felt that this kind of popularity was of course catapulting the opposition and I was being seen as a threat (as also deputy leader of the Opposition Party), bringing all the people together. To fast track it, it just went on to the local newspapers who got one of their journalists to carry on the task.
“Simpaul’s travel service is one which the Warner family has a beneficial interest offering World Cup packages since 1994. Simpaul’s Travel Agency began paying 20,00 for the rights in years before to $500,000 a couple months ago. In connection with European tour operator then put some packages on the market for sale. They paid in July and August and September for those rights and such therefore it was advertised. No one believed the team could qualify other than Jack Warner. In other words even if the team did not qualify, those tickets would have been on sale. When the team qualified now the whole hype built up and everyone wanted to be on the bandwagon and wanted tickets and they said Simpaul’s had all the tickets in a monopoly.
“The fact is, and hear me well, the Federation did not apply for its tickets until last week. December 25 when every newspaper would say Merry Christmas to its readers, there was a big headline - Warner family hits jackpot. The whole intention was to tarnish me and they then sent the story worldwide, At the end of the day it does not affect Jack Warner because my skin and this wall has the same thickness but when you go to the family I have a problem, Then on January 3 I made my response which they have since tried to investigate and they can’t find anything, because at the end of the day the tickets Simpaul’s is offering the market have nothing to do with the T&T allocation.
”Its allocation came only last week but this was done to destroy Jack Warner in some way. They believe I am close to Mr (Sepp) Blatter, which I am, and they are bringing out this book, but let FIFA deal with that. I sleep very sound at nights. They have also spoken about scandal and corruption. He (The Writer from T&T) had applied for accreditation and he was turned down and there’s a big story in today’s papers and again they are attacking Jack Warner. How could you attack the FIFA, Jack Warner and Blatter in the worse way and then want to cover the sport that these people administer,” Warner said.
“But there are two mistakes that they have made. In the first case they did not know that the TTFF applied for its tickets only last week. The thought it was since November or December and they thought this was now the Simpaul’s tickets and then they didn’t know that Simpaul’s had paid since July for their tickets and I had the receipts to show. In some ways I have a loyalty with FIFA and they have to me that these people cannot dismantle. I have been fighting for the region, CONCACAF and Trinidad and Tobago and not one day have I fought for me, so the records are there to show you,” Warner said.
