FIFA must also start thinking and acting local

The latest figures show that approximately half of the 640 000 tickets available for the the Confederations Cup have been sold with just over a month to go before the tournament kicks off. The reason for the slow uptake of these tickets is FIFA’s sytstem of vending them which obviously worked perfectly in Germany. Herein lies the problem. Germany is a first world class which has very high levels of technological literacy. People there are generally very comfortable ordering and buying things online.

South Africa is a different story altogether. First of all only a very small percentage of our population is computer literate and an even smaller percentage actually own their own machine. Furthermore people at the lower end of the market – the vast majority of the population in South Africa – do not trust transactions partaken in cyberspace. This is why FIFA’ s very sophisticated ticket selling system was doomed to fail in South Africa.

Mzion, the self-proclaimed and very recognisable number one Kaizer Chiefs FC and Bafana Bafana, is quoted by a major Sunday newspaper saying that interest for Confed Cup tickets should start picking up due to a fundamental shift in the whole ticket-selling process. FIFA, through the Local Organising Committee, have finally come to their senses and are making tickets available over-the-counter at certain retail outlets. Mzion goes on to say that people found it too daunting a task to apply online then went for an sms and ‘what-what’. He even said that most township folk were scared that money was going to be taken from their accounts. This is how paranoid a vast majority of South Africans are about aspects of first world processes.

Now things should drastically change for the better since the tickets are now going to be sold over the counter. FIFA must realise that this is Africa and certain things just can’t be transplanted from the first world and be expected to work as they did in Germany. Another very negative characteristc that is also associated with Africa that seems to be coming up is that of ‘African time’.

Derek Carstens the Marketing Head for the LOC mentioned in the same Sunday newspaper article featuring Mzion that the 8-month marketing budget he had been allocated was R15 million. The IPL in comparison are spending 4 or 5 times that over a 6-week period. I have no doubt that a lot more money will be released by the LOC. But it will be done in ‘African time’, which means at the very last minute. The funny thing is somehow we get things done anyway. So FIFA, brace yourself.