FIFA President Gianni Infantino pleaded with fans in New Zealand to buy tickets to the Women’s World Cup after exhausting their complimentary ticket sources amid poor sales.
Infantino told fans that they needed to “do the right thing,” while other officials asked for fans not to wait until the “last moment” to buy tickets, CNN reported.
It was recently revealed that slow ticket movement resulted in 20,000 tickets being given away for the tournament, which were revealed to all be coming from official partner and New Zealand accounting software company Xero.
New Zealand has struggled to garner interest from fans, while co-host country Australia has provided the overwhelming majority of sales.
“New Zealand, we want you. We need you,” Infantino stressed at a press conference in Auckland, New Zealand. “It’s never too late to do the right thing. Come to watch the matches. We need full stadiums to warm us all up,” he added.
“We still have tickets available for some matches, so my only plea is don’t wait until the last moment,” added FIFA secretary general for New Zealand Fatma Samoura.
“You still can apply and get your ticket for the majority of the matches, and we hope that this will be also the most attended women’s sporting event – it is already, but that we will be reaching record figures,” she added.
A spokesperson from Xero told CNN that its supply of free tickets had been exhausted and no further giveaways were available.
Much of the financial panic can likely be attributed to the guaranteed payment the organization has promised all the participating athletes for the first time. FIFA agreed to guaranteed payments for Women’s World Cup players at a minimum of $30,000 for each participant. A record $110 million to players is part of the $152 million total given to players, clubs, and federations as well.
Infantino assured fans that they would not be watching a lower-quality version of the sport and praised the advancement of women’s soccer.
“Many people who still believe that women’s football is not, you know, great, a great game or it’s not so entertaining or it’s a kind of a bad copy of men’s football, or some stuff like that,” he explained.
“Well, when they watch a game for the first time, they will actually see that it’s a fantastic game. It’s very entertaining. It’s great athletes playing, the level has grown incredibly in the last 10 years, and the best are coming here,” the president went on.
Despite the added pressure, the New Zealand team won a Women’s World Cup game for the first time ever (1-0) in the opening match against Norway.
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