THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has raised about KR3.6 million gross in gate takings from the two World Cup qualifiers Zambia played against Lesotho and Sudan.
The matches were played at Ndola’s Levy Mwanawasa Stadium on June 8 and June 15.
FAZ is, however, awaiting an official report from Zampost, which they engaged for ticket sales.
Treasurer Kelvin Mutafu said in an interview yesterday that the association targeted KR2 million on ticket sales from each game and that the turnout at both games was almost 90 percent.
“We had a large turnout at both games and had almost 90 percent of the total sell-out. The revenue targeted was KR2 million for each game but we are waiting for the final report from Zampost,” he said.
Mutafu said Zampost will consolidate the report by the end of this week and that FAZ will work out the net income after receiving the report from Zampost.
Mutafu thanked soccer fans who turned out in thousands at the 42,000-seater stadium for the two games but regretted that some people bought tickets in bulk and resold them at a higher price.
“It is really sad that we had such incidents. The tickets were priced cheaply to encourage fans to fill the stadium but some unscrupulous dealers capitalised on that. It is regrettable,” he said.
Mutafu said measures were put in place to curb such behaviour but that it was difficult to control.
“We had our measures in place like allowing only two tickets per person but it was difficult to control because some people hired others to buy for them, hence getting more than two tickets,” he said.
Mutafu said the best control measure is to put each game at its market value and that the association is planning to start selling tickets online.
[Daily Mail]