With World Cup fever kicking in following the opening games of the tournament, FIFA and hosts Qatar will be hoping that the magic of the beautiful game and the excitement of what is often called the greatest tournament on earth will start to shift attention away from the many controversies attached to the event. Unfortunately, a ticketing app fiasco that saw many fans’ tickets simply disappear has ensured that it won’t be plain sailing just yet.
We recently reported on apps that the host nation Qatar had made mandatory for all football fans visiting the country for the first winter World Cup download. Shockingly, those apps came loaded with spyware and took massive liberties with the personal privacy of all foreign fans visiting Qatar. Today’s news covers a whole other side of shady dealings, however, as the official FIFA ticketing app crashed just before kick-off leaving “thousands” of ticket-holding fans wondering whether they would be able to enter the stadium and see the match they’d bought tickets for.
According to ESPN the two matches affected by the app outage were the thrilling clash between England and Iran, which saw an incredible 8 goals, and the tense affair between USA and Wales, which ended 1-1. Fans were advised to seek assistance away from the stadium if they couldn’t access the email address, they used to purchase their tickets, with FIFA putting out this statement:
“Some spectators are currently experiencing an issue with accessing their tickets via the FIFA ticketing app. FIFA is working on solving the issue. In the meantime, fans who are not able to access their mobile tickets should check the email accounts they used to register with the ticketing app for further instructions […] n case fans cannot access their email accounts, the stadium’s Ticket Resolution Point will be able to support. We thank fans for their understanding as we work to fix the issue as soon as possible.”
The news marks another controversy that has rocked the FIFA World Cup, with the tournament barely three days old. The hosts and FIFA will hope to put these types of headlines behind them sooner rather than later. We will just have to wait and see, however, if they are capable of running this tournament efficiently and effectively.
If you are looking to make the most of the tournament, however, be sure to check out our guide to all the vital World Cup apps, as well as a cheeky little piece on how to watch the World Cup matches at work without getting noticed by your boss.
