The Belgian FA says an English agent has offered them tickets for the Group E derby against the Netherlands on June 13th for six times their face value.

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Belgian FA and sponsors feel ticket strain

Published:January 13th, 1998

The Belgians also claim that the agent may have sold tickets to the Dutch for the match and that segregation at the Stade de Nacional in Paris will be almost impossible if these tickets go onto the market to satisfy enormous demand.

The Belgian FA say 120,000 people have applied for their allocation for the match with the Netherlands which is traditionally the derby game for the two national sides.

The Belgians were expecting 8,000 tickets for the game as the new stadium has an 80,000 capacity and each team receives 10% of the seats. Now they claim only 5,400 tickets will be available for this game and after finding this information out they were approached by the English agent. The Belgians did not accept this offer as to do so would contavene ticketing rules but the likelihood of any of the Belgian FA's tickets being sold to members of the public is negligible as FA members and Belgian clubs will take up the allocation for the Netherlands match.

Sponsors of the Belgian FA are also left with only around 200 tickets each whereas they initially believed they would receive 2000 as part of their sponsorship package. If sponsors of all the national sides taking part in the Finals are left in similar circumstances then FIFA will face an outcry from some very influential financial backers.

UEFA President Lennart Johansson has also criticised the ticketing arrangements for ordinary supporters as the allocations for some well supported teams are very low making for the prospects of a very quiet Finals.