Germany organising committee president Franz Beckenbauer has dismissed claims from FIFA chief Sepp Blatter FIFA’s that the World Cup ticketing arrangements are confusing.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter criticised the organising committee’s ticket sales operations at the weekend, saying FIFA should have kept control of ticket management and will take it back for 2010.
“These accusations are irritating,” Beckenbauer said at the start of a two-day technical meeting of 32 World Cup participants ahead of the tournament that starts on June 9.
“We knew that the issue of ticketing would be the biggest problem.
“It’s an extremely sensitive topic. But there have been 20 meetings already with FIFA. And FIFA was kept informed every step of the way. That’s why it surprises me when the FIFA president comes out with such comments.”
In an interview with the Neue Zuericher Zeitung newspaper, Blatter said the German Football Federation (DFB) opted for a system of lotteries that was confusing.
“The Germans picked a system I can’t understand at all,” said Blatter on Sunday. “I don’t know how many meetings we’ve had about that. We simply aren’t making any progress with the DFB.
“It would probably have been better if we had taken over the ticketing ourselves. I had my reservations about it from the start but in the end I’ll be blamed for everything. In South Africa in 2010 we will take over control of the ticketing again.”
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