Soccer: Fifa faces anger at price of Cup seats

Ticket prices for the 2002 soccer World Cup finals in Japan and Korea were branded "appalling" and "completely out of the reach of the ordinary fan" after it emerged that an average seat will cost around $333. The average cost at the last World Cup in France in 1998 was $127.

There will be a limited number of category "C" tickets (behind the goals) for group games in Japan and Korea, but around half of the tickets for every match will be sold as considerably more expensive "A" seats. Prices for these will start at $344 in the group stage and rise to $516 in the second round.

In the quarter-finals they will cost $688, in the semifinals they will be $1135 and for the final they will be $1720 each. A set of seven tickets for the tournament will cost up to $5161, and the cheapest tickets for the final alone will be $688.

At France 98, more than half the tickets for the tournament were priced at $86 or less. The cheapest seat for the final was $120 and the most expensive was $1015.

A spokesman for Fifa, football's world governing body, defended the pricing policy by saying Japan and Korea were costly places to stage the event.

"The organisers have to make money and that's why prices are so high," the spokesman said. "If you were going to see Pavarotti or Placido Domingo you'd pay $US400 [$933] or $US500 [$1166]. The World Cup is an exceptional event. If you want to see it, you have to pay for it."

The spokesman added that Fifa did not anticipate being unable to sell the 3 million tickets available for the 2002 tournament's 64 matches.

"Japan has 130 million people and they have the money to buy the tickets. They're football mad. Japan is the most expensive country in the world and you have to accept that."

Tickets for the 2002 event go on sale from February. Around half of all seats will be sold in the host nations and half internationally.

Previous tournaments have been marred by ticketing fiascos and black market trade. Thousands of fans arrived at France 98 having bought tickets via unofficial sources, only to find the tickets did not exist.