FIFA U-17 World Cup: FIFA website glitches leave fans ticket-less for Brazil vs England semifinal in Kolkata

New Delhi: Technical flaws on the official FIFA website and long online queues kept football fans in Kolkata without tickets for the Under-17 World Cup semifinal between Brazil and England, according to a report in The Indian Expres.

The semifinal was originally scheduled to be played at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, but due to poor pitch conditions there, the game was shifted to Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata. 

The news led to football-mad Kolkatans scampering for tickets, leading to registrations numbering over a lakh on the FIFA website within an hour's time.

“You are in an online queue for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 tickets. Once it is your turn, you will have 10 minutes to enter the website,” read the message on FIFA website.

“My number at the online queue was 32,400. After waiting for almost two hours, I finally managed to enter the website for 10 minutes. However, the site crashed and I could not place my orders. Later, I again tried and my number was at 66,000. This time the site crashed at the payment-option page,” a student in Kolkata told The Indian Express.

“As an ardent football fan, I bought tickets online and attended most of the matches. When I heard that the semi-final match has been shifted here, I decided not to miss it. Even though money was deducted from my bank account, I did not get any ticket confirmation mail from the FIFA website,” school teacher Sujoy Mukherjee told the newspaper.

Those who came to the stadium after trying their luck online left disappointed from the venue as well. “We are providing tickets to only those who have bought it online and have the ticket confirmation mail from the website,” an official at the box office was quoted as saying.