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FIFA blasted over ticket fiasco

Empty seats were a feature at Busan's Asiad Stadium on Sunday

BUSAN, South Korea (CNN) -- Angry World Cup organizers have launched a furious broadside at FIFA over its handling of ticketing arrangements after the stadiums at "sold out" matches played over the weekend were not filled.

Television images of blocks of vacant seats at the games -- including the opening match in Seoul between France and Senegal as well as Sunday's England-Sweden clash in Saitama, Japan -- have upset fans who were unable to get tickets and left officials severely red-faced.

FIFA, football's governing body, has defended its ticketing policy and attempted to respond to future shortfalls on Saturday by releasing unsold overseas tickets for resale on the Internet.

However, its ticketing Web site crashed shortly after the announcement and was still down by mid-Monday, adding more fuel to the fire from organizers and fans.

"They are idiots! Why do they do that to us?" Kwon Hai-Youn, in charge of ticket sales for the Korean World Cup Organizing Committee (KOWOC) told CNN.

"I really hate them! Their Web site has not been working since June 1. There should not be these problems. They are idiots."

Axis of evil

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Tim Lister has a look at the difficulty some fans have encountered in getting a ticket to a World Cup soccer match (June 3) Play video

Kwon said that fans wishing to get tickets could buy them in cash from ticketing centers at World Cup venue cities, but added that KOWOC was not being informed how many tickets were available for which games.

He blames UK-based Byrom Inc., FIFA's exclusive ticketing agency charged with the printing and supplying of tickets for the World Cup, for most of the problems but said that the "ultimate authority ends with FIFA."

Byrom has been at the center of criticism over several ticketing problems including duplication of tickets, and the delays in printing and the dispatch hundreds of thousands of tickets to Japan and South Korea that left some overseas fans without tickets.

"They are the axis of evil," Kwon told CNN.

"Forgive me, I am too upset with them, but I think the whole general public and Korean citizens have been ridiculed by this European company.

"When the matches begin, we have already told the public that they are sold-out, but when they see the game they see all the empty seats. We look stupid and they [Byrom] do not tell us what went wrong."

FIFA said that there were 3,500 empty seats at Friday's tournament kick-off in Seoul while on the first day of action in Japan on Saturday, there were almost 20,000 vacant seats. Even drawcards England and Argentina did not play in front of full-houses on Sunday in Japan.

Although FIFA has said it will probe the shortfall in audience at the opening match, it added that a number of seats were deliberately left vacant at matches as part of a pre-planned policy.

FIFA's ticketing Web site: Closed for business

"Many seats were automatically killed because of the unsatisfactory sightlines," FIFA director of communications Keith Cooper said when questioned about thousands of empty seats in Japan for the Germany-Saudi Arabia clash in Sapporo on Saturday.

"But it is a fact of life. The vast majority of the stadium was full and there was plenty of atmosphere."

Cooper says that the seats are also left vacant to ensure that fans that had purchased tickets but had not received them due to problems with the ticketing database would be able to get in to see the match.

But Japanese organizing officials are less than impressed.

"We were told that the unsold overseas tickets would be sent to us for sale in Japan, so we regret that they were not," Japan's World Cup Organizing Committee spokeswoman Yukiko Koike said.

When asked if the unsold tickets caused the vacant blocks at the grounds, Koike added: "It is a possibility."

KOWOC's Kwon rebuked FIFA's explanations and has said that KOWOC has been warning FIFA and Byrom about possible problems with the ticketing system for months.

"They lied. We all know where the obstructed seats are, and the empty blocks were not obstructed seats at all. They keep lying to cover their faults," he said.