Buying World Cup Tickets Online
I read this story today about the English government’s attempt to crack down on World Cup internet ticket touts. If you look at just about any site talking about the World Cup (including this one) you’ll see advertisements for World Cup tickets. A few readers and a few of my friends have asked me how this works. After all, FIFA and the tournament organizers have publicly proclaimed that their ticket distribution system has been designed to prevent this exact sort of thing. They have stated that names will be printed on tickets and that information will be stored on chips on the tickets so only people who have bought tickets through the official channels will be allowed into the stadium.
To be honest, I am not sure how this works or how the ticket vendors get their tickets, but obviously there are enough touts out there that their must be a system of some sort in place. Perhaps they get their tickets from corporate sponsors or maybe from FIFA executives (see this article from 2002), who knows?
I was concerned about the possibility that people might buy tickets online and not be allowed into the stadiums this summer so I contacted TicketsNow.com, which is the vendor World Cup Blog has partnered with after doing a bunch of background checking on a number of companies. Here is what they had to say:
World Cup tickets listed on TicketsNow.com are owned by licensed, professional ticket resellers. These resellers obtain their World Cup tickets from official, secure sources. The majority of the tickets are not personalized. In some instances, your name can be printed on the tickets you buy. Please note, if you purchase World Cup tickets from TicketsNow, you may be asked to provide a passport number. Resellers will be at the event to guarantee entry.
They also told me they have never had a problem with people not being allowed into the events for which they have sold tickets.
I’m hoping to get more information about all this so I can share it with anyone who is thinking about buying tickets online on this site. With the amount of money tickets are going for it really is worth your time to do a little research on the companies you are buying from and hopefully I can help you out a bit.
If anyone has any insight or experience with this, we’d love to hear from you as well.
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Comments
By Eric | March 23rd, 2006 at 2:50 pm 
The couple of things I have read about getting them FIFA has a process to get the names on them before they aremailed by a transfer process. So many of them have that fee as part of their sale. I saw one guy on e-bay who said if he could not get the ticket switched that you could show up and they are only doing random checks on the names. The chips are just security to make sure the tickets are not fake.
Posted from 
United States
By OPKO | March 23rd, 2006 at 3:46 pm This was a long time ago, pre-9/11, but at Euro2000 in Belgium and Holland we had our names printed on tickets and not once were we asked for i.d. when entering the stadium. We went to 5 games including both semi-finals.
Posted from 
Canada
By C.W. | June 10th, 2006 at 12:27 am I’m wondering if one of you can help me to understand if this is normal. My friend bought 2 world cup tickets from ticketsnow.com but she doesn’t have the tickets in hand yet. According to ticketsnow.com, the tickets will be printed in Germany 2 weeks prior to the game and will remain in Germany with the listing seller having the ability to ship them to hotels around Germany.
Is this the way that they are distributing the tickets?
Is it true that the tickets can not be sent to USA?
I would appreciate it if someone could explain the official distribution process for the tickets …… I don’t know if ticketsnow.com is telling the truth.
Posted from United States
By DS | June 11th, 2006 at 8:42 pm Ive ordered tickets too, Im from Moscow and theyve told me that will deliver it to me to my hotel in Germany. I think its ok and wont be any problem with that. I wonder only one thing: as far as I know the chip in the ticket contains data of another person.. Would it be a problem with entering the stadium for me?
Posted from 
Russian Federation
By Harry | June 12th, 2006 at 11:44 pm Has anyone got their tickets after ordering them online from unofficial sellers? I have ordered tickets for the 1/4 final but haven’t received them yet.
Posted from 
United Kingdom
By DS | June 13th, 2006 at 8:37 pm I havent got yet too but they told me that will deliver it right to the hotel in Germany..
Posted from Russian Federation
By CW | June 20th, 2006 at 5:35 pm Today June 20th ticketsnow delivered the tickets at the hotel as they’d promised. A day prior to the game.
Posted from United States
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