Jumping turnstiles

So much for going to World Cup matches. For all the criticism I launch, there is still something great about the World Cup. For those of us that mark our lives in four year increments having the tournament in one´s backyard happens once in a lifetime and I was looking forward to riding my bike to the X-Maracanã to catch all of the games there. The ticketing mechanism that FIFA and MATCH have devised is certain to please no one other than those who received tickets. As usual, there is a lack of transparency. Despite my repeated and insistent requests I have not been able to get information about the number and kind of tickets distributed for the Confederations Cup and I am sure that there will be little or no information made available regarding the 2014 World Cup.

Some questions that need answers are: How many ticket requests for the varying categories were made and filled? What is the percentage of tickets available in each category? What is the percentage of tickets being reserved for “hospitality” groups? Why did France (not qualified)receive more tickets in the first allocation phase than Colombia (qualified)? Why did Switzerland receive more than Argentina? Did Herr Blatter give the Pope some tickets in exchange for absolution?

This is what I have been able to piece together after the first round of ticket sales. Looking closely, doesn´t it seem a bit off that only 2% of Argentines that applied got tickets and 27% of Canadians? 

	Applied	Distributed	Percentage
Total	6,164,682	889,305	14
Brazil	4,368,029	(1) 625,276	14
USA	374.065	(2) 66,646	18
Argentina	266,937	(10) 4493	2
Germany	134,899	(4) 18,019	13
Chile	102,288	no data	no data
Engerland	96,78	(3) 22,257	23
Australia	88,082	(5) 15,401	17
Japan	69,806	(10) 5,021	7
Colombia	55,379	(8) 11,326	20
Canada	49,968	(6) 13,507	27
France	no data	(7) 11,628	no data
Switzerland	no data	(9) 8,082	no data

Yesterday´s ticketing debacle was no less frustrating. I sat in a virtual queue for 3.5 hours only to find out that there were no tickets left for any category for any game other than Cuiabá. Now it is time to dar um jeito and ask my friends from all over the world to register their names with their respective football federations (for the next round of ticketing on December 8) so that I can at least go and see Ghana play Costa Rica in Manaus. If anyone manages to get better data, or a better way to get tickets without working for a multi-national corporation, let me know. 

And if foreigners and the Brazilian Gen Me want to see some images of what the Maracanã used to be like before it was domesticated, deformed and deracinated, have a look at the trailer of this film about the Fla x Flu rivalry: