Hundreds of schoolchildren caught up in an alleged World Cup ticket fraud will get to watch a game after government talks with Fifa, Downing Street said. […] Prime Minister Tony Blair originally hinted at helping the children to get tickets for another game during a phone-in on Radio Five Live on Monday, when he said it was “something we need to work on”. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) warned it would be difficult to source enough tickets, but on Wednesday Downing Street said personal talks between sports minister Richard Caborn and Fifa president Sepp Blatter had led to a deal being struck.

Good news, everyone. If ever you decide to buy tickets for a World Cup match through an unofficial website with no visible credentials and then get totally shafted, you can be sure that cronyism and a politician desperate to improve his personal approval ratings will come to your rescue.

No mention of where the 400 spare tickets for this will come from, but presumable they were not already taken (I find it hard to believe 400 tickets would be clawed back from sponsors or local dignitaries). If, say, for England’s match against Ecuador on Sunday, 400 tickets were given gratis to German schoolchildren who’d been caught up in a ticketing scam after the personal intervention of Angela Merkel, rather than put on sale to genuine fans of England, I doubt the English press would be feeling so charitable.

This wasn’t exactly an elaborate fraud, in fact it’s the oldest trick in the book: fake company promises something they won’t deliver on. And the warning signs were there: to even the casual observer, the “Tickets For All” website (unsurprisingly down, though the Google cache is still about) looks distinctly untrustworthy. There are no official logos or references, and a quick check of the FIFA website confirms that buying from resellers was not at all recommended:

2006 FIFA World Cup™ match tickets can only be purchased officially from www.FIFAworldcup.com. All the OC can do is warn people to steer well clear of any other offer. Fans obtaining tickets in this way may find themselves denied admission at the turnstiles.

The competence of Activ4, the travel agency that got duped in this case, is certainly up for question, if they were drawn in by this sham site without asking any questions. To top it off, did you see the prices they were charging? £305 for South Korea v. Togo (tickets for which would normally cost €100, about a quarter of that). No credentials, extortionate prices - these people were classic scalpers. As the old saying goes, you pays your money, you takes your chances. Or rather, you pays your money, then get your new mate the Prime Minister to help you out.

Perhaps I’m being harsh in this case - after all it’s schoolchildren who’ve been done over. They are the innocent victims. Won’t someone please think of the children? Well, fuck ‘em. They’re not the first people to be diddled out of their money, and they certainly won’t be the last. It would have been a valuable lesson in life - never, ever trust a tout. Instead the lesson they’ve learnt is to make a big moan to the papers and rely on cronyism to bail you out for your foolhardiness. Actually come to think of it, that’s pretty much how modern Britain works. So perhaps there was a lesson in there after all.

Update: Of course, there is one schoolboy who definitely won’t be getting a refund…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 at 13:28:27 and is filed under General.