ZURICH, Feb 19, (Agencies): Only half of the VIP tickets for the World Cup have been sold, providing a mixed assessment of gate receipts just four months before football’s biggest event kicks off in South Africa.
FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke said only 2.1 million tickets have been sold for the tournament that has a capacity of 2.9 million.
But the biggest problem has been with “hospitality” programs, where ticketing agencies make the bulk of their profits by selling spots in luxury booths at significantly higher prices.
Valcke blamed the disappointing performance in the VIP sector on the economic crisis. Price gouging and security fears over South Africa are also causing many football fans to forego the World Cup.
Last year “was the worst period to sell hospitality programs,” Valcke told reporters at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich. “I’m sure that it impacted at least by 50 percent the potential.”
He also said South Africa would not get 450,000 visitors as it had predicted. He said the number could be as low as 350,000, but he didn’t have a precise estimate.
But FIFA has worked hard to make the World Cup more accessible.
Valcke said world football’s governing body negotiated lower plane tickets with some airlines, bringing the price of a round-trip flight from New York to Johannesburg down to $2,000 during the World Cup from a normal charge of $3,000.

To prevent empty seats in South Africa’s stadiums, seats once designated for traveling Europeans, Americans and other football supporters are being switched to a lower-price category for South Africans. This will hurt profits somewhat, but will also help realize FIFA’s goal of ensuring that at least a fifth of spectators at the tournament will be locals.
The lower ticket sales don’t hurt FIFA because the organization reached a deal with marketing firm Match Services AG seven years ago for this World Cup and the next one in Brazil in 2014, Valcke said. South Africa’s organizing committee has broken even, he said.
On security, meanwhile, Valcke promised that the World Cup would be safe at all venues. He noted South Africa’s crime problems, but said they couldn’t compare in any way to the breakaway region of Angola where Togo’s team was attacked last month at the African Cup of Nations.

Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola said on Thursday he had become an ambassador for Qatar’s bid to become the first country in the Middle East to host the World Cup in 2022.
“I am here to inform you that I have reached an agreement to be an ambassador for Qatar’s candidacy to host the 2022 World Cup. My support stems basically from the fact that I lived there,” he told a news conference.
“They really insisted and since they treated me and my family well, I decided to accept the proposal.”
The 39-year-old, who played for Qatar’s Al Ahli between 2003 and 2005, also said he hoped Spain and Portugal’s joint bid to host the 2018 World Cup would succeed.

As an ambassador, Guardiola will attend events to voice his support for Qatar’s World Cup ambitions, as well as giving leaders of the bid technical advice on staging the world’s biggest tournament.
“Everywhere he goes, Josep will bring across our message that a World Cup in Qatar in 2022 will give sporting hope to millions of children across the Middle East,” said Qatar’s bid committee CEO, Hassan Abdulla Al Thawadi.
Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands/Belgium, Russia and Spain/Portugal have bid to host both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, while Qatar and South Korea are bidding just to host the event in 2022.
England and Spain/Portugal are viewed as the leading contenders for 2018, while the United States, hosts in 1994, are seen as a top candidate for 2022.
A World Cup in Qatar would be the first global sporting event ever to be hosted in the Middle East.