A timely intervention

Yesterday, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, ordered a review of the price of tickets for the crucial World Cup qualifying playoff between the Ghana’s Black Stars and the Pharaohs of Egypt following protests by football fans who had been outraged by the sudden hike in the ticket prices.

In fact, news of a possible hike in prices and the subsequent announcement of the astronomical increases, some as high as 200 per cent, came as a big surprise. No wonder the threats by some fans in Kumasi to boycott the match if the authorities did not step in to prevent what they felt was a big rip-off by the National Sports Authority (NSA), which is responsible for pricing tickets for international matches, in consultation with other stakeholders, particularly the Ghana Football Association.

For a crucial match such as the October 15 playoff, what is needed most is massive attendance and strong home support for the Black Stars to record a comfortable victory to ease the pressure ahead of the return leg in Cairo.

Certainly, the sudden hike in the prices of tickets was needless and poor judgement by the NSA, which said it took the decision as a means of curbing ticket racketeering by ticket touts, even though we believe the NSA hoped to cash in on the expected high attendance at this important clash.

While attempts by the NSA to flush out ticket touts are laudable, the steps being considered are unlikely to yield the right results and could rather lead to lower attendance by fans who already find rates for Premier League matches out of their reach.

That is why the Graphic Sports lauds the minister for his swift intervention which could have adversely affected attendance at this all-important World Cup qualifier.

This paper finds it rather perplexing that following the successful hosting of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana which saw electronic coded tickets sold days in advance, the sports authorities have gone back to the old ways of selling tickets on match days, instead of building on one of the legacies of the Nations Cup.

Last week, Accra Hearts of Oak sold advanced tickets for their league match against Kumasi Asante Kotoko and later announced record gate proceeds. Despite the potential threats of counterfeiting, it is our considered opinion that the installation of modern turnstiles at the country’s four major stadia which hosted matches at the 2008 Nations Cup fitted with a device to detect fake tickets from genuine, coded tickets is the best way to beat the ticket touts if the authorities revert to the use of electronic coded tickets for big matches.

Very often, the sporting authorities have taken the short route to address challenges confronting them and that rather opens up new problems they did not anticipate in the first place.

At a time when football clubs are finding it difficult to attract spectators to their matches, such astronomical hikes in the prices of tickets are counter-productive and do not in any way help provide solutions to the issue of ticket racketeering.

Graphic Sports/Ghana