The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ General Terms and Conditions for the Use of Tickets (“GTCs”) stipulate that “Ticket Holders may not sell, offer for sale, resell, donate or otherwise transfer their Tickets in any way, without the specific prior written approval of FIFA. Transfer Requests will be considered in accordance with a Ticket Transfer Policy defined by FIFA.” (Section 4.1) This Ticket Transfer Policy states the rules that have been established by FIFA with regard to Ticket transfers.
Ticketing is conducted through FIFA’s South African subsidiary, the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing (Pty) Limited (“FIFA”), and is administered by the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing Centre (“FWCTC”).
What Tickets are eligible for transfer under the Ticket Transfer Policy?
Individuals who applied for, and successfully purchased, Tickets: (a) online via www.FIFA.com (both general public and participating member association specific web pages), or (b) via official paper ticket application forms issued by the FWCTC (“Ticket Applicants”), may use the procedures described here (unless the participating member association limited transfers in accordance with its supporter policies).
Anyone who purchased Tickets as part of Authorized Travel Packages or Official Hospitality Packages should contact their respective Participating Tour Operators or Official Hospitality Agents for all customer service issues.
Ticket holders who were given Tickets by FIFA Partners, FIFA Sponsors, National Supporters, other FIFA Family members, Match Hospitality clients, Participating Tour Operator customers, or other Ticket Applicants, must contact the individual who gave them the Tickets, and are not eligible to use the procedures described here, which are for Ticket purchasers (not their guests).
Any person who may hold a Ticket obtained from an unauthorized sales channel is ineligible to use the procedures described here. Any such Tickets are held in violation of the GTCs and are not considered legitimate. Access to the stadium may be denied.
What kind of Ticket Transfers are allowed?
There are two types of Ticket transfers: (1) Guest Ticket Transfers; and (2) Ticket Resales, as defined in detail below.
A “Guest Ticket Transfer” is the transfer of a Ticket allocated by the Ticket Applicant from one of his/her original guests (whose details are held by the FWCTC pursuant to the original ticket application of the Ticket Applicant) to another individual guest nominated by the Ticket Applicant. Any such guest must have a pre-existing relationship with the Ticket Applicant. FIFA recognizes that Ticket Applicants and guests’ circumstances may change over time. The Guest Ticket Transfer programme is intended to provide easy to use, accessible systems to facilitate Guest Ticket Transfers, and to collect accurate data regarding guests. The Guest Ticket Transfer programme is NOT for use by anyone who is reselling Tickets or has acquired Tickets through unauthorised sources. Ticket Applicants should not transfer Tickets for commercial purposes or to individuals with whom there is no pre-existing relationship. Consumers should be wary of receiving Tickets through anyone claiming to be able to facilitate legitimate Tickets for them through the Guest Ticket Transfer programme.
A “Ticket Resale” is a transaction pursuant to which a Ticket is submitted to the FWCTC by the Ticket Applicant for potential resale through authorized sales channels. There is no guaranty that a Ticket submitted for resale will actually be resold. But if it is, the transaction will allow the Tickets to be legitimately acquired by a new Ticket Applicant, and resale proceeds will be provided to the original Ticket Applicant (less a small fee), in accordance with the policies described here.
How may I transfer a ticket from one Guest to another Guest?
A Ticket Applicant may change the composition of the Guests accompanying him and using the Tickets that he purchased, provided that the Ticket Applicant:
(1) Submits a Guest Ticket Transfer Request: The Ticket Applicant must submit a transfer request online within the “View your application” menu item of www.FIFA.com/2010 or at a FIFA Ticketing Centre within South Africa within one of the Transfer Time Windows (as described below). For PMA Supporters additional requirements may apply
(2) Identifies a Valid Reason: A valid reason must be identified for the Guest Ticket Transfer (as specified below). For PMA Supporters, depending on the requirements of the particular Member Association, additional restrictions may apply.
Can I identify anyone as a Guest?
Tickets may only be transferred to bona fide “Guests” of the Ticket Applicant, namely, relatives, close friends, colleagues and/or the companions of individuals in wheelchairs or other disabilities. Note that the Ticket Applicant has legal responsibility for his Guests as identified in the Ticket Sales Regulations and GTCs, which the Ticket Applicant accepted when applying for Tickets and reconfirms when submitting a Guest Transfer Request.
When do I make a request for a Guest Ticket Transfer?
Guest Ticket Transfers may be made within two specific “Transfer Time Windows” only, namely 25 January 2010 through to the 25 February 2010 and from the 15 April 2010 through to three days prior to the start of a match. .
What is the fee for the Guest Ticket Transfer?
There are no fees for the Guest Transfers.
What are the valid reasons for Guest Ticket Transfers?
To avoid the use of the Guest Ticket Transfer programme by those seeking to engage in unauthorized transfers or otherwise circumventing FIFA policies, the following list identifies valid reasons for Guest Ticket Transfers:
(1) a Ticket Holder wishes to transfer a Ticket from a named Guest to a family member;
(2) a nominated Guest is ill;
(3) a nominated Guest is unable to obtain a valid visa to travel to South Africa;
(4) a nominated Guest is prohibited from travelling from his point of origin;
(5) there is an event of force majeure;
(6) a nominated Guest dies, or where a close relative of the nominated Guest dies; and
(7) due to a change in personal circumstances,
Documentation may be required by the FWCTC to establish the grounds for the valid reason, and FIFA retains the right to refuse a transfer if the supporting documents are not supplied upon request.
Can I transfer my own Ticket to a Guest?
No, Ticket Applicants are not permitted to transfer the Ticket allocated to the Ticket Applicant himself. If the Ticket Applicant is unable to attend the match for which he has purchased Tickets, then he may submit all of his Tickets for possible resale under the Ticket Resale programme described below. This rule is essential to uphold the policy rationale for this Ticket Transfer Policy identified below.
I am a Guest, not the Ticket Applicant. Can I transfer my Ticket?
Guests who are holding Tickets cannot request a transfer of the Ticket they hold. Only the Ticket Applicant can make transfer requests to change to the composition of his Guests.
What if I did not buy Tickets through an Authorized Sales Channel?
Any person who may hold a Ticket obtained from an unauthorized sales channel is ineligible to use the procedures described here. Any such Tickets are held in violation of the GTCs and are not considered legitimate. Access to the stadium may be denied. In any event, the FWCTC will have no record of you actually holding any Tickets, so it would not be possible for us to facilitate any transfers of any such Tickets.
What is the policy for Guest Transfers for TST Tickets?
For the avoidance of doubt, TSTs represent a specific type of product offering, namely, a strip of tickets for use by one individual to attend a series of matches. Ticket Applicants who have purchased TSTs will only be permitted to submit the entire TST series of tickets for guest transfer (and not any parts thereof). Only one guest may be nominated to use a TST strip of tickets.
What is the policy for Ticket Resales?
If a Ticket Applicant cannot use all of the Tickets that he has purchased, the Ticket Applicant will have the opportunity to request the resale of the Tickets he no longer wants via the FWCTC, so that the FWCTC can try to resell the Tickets to another fan in accordance with the Ticket Resale Policy. Unlike the Guest Transfer policy, the Ticket Applicant will not have to provide a reason for the Ticket Resale request. This process is available only prior to the time when the Ticket Applicant has printed out a hard Ticket. Also, there is no guaranty that demand for Tickets will result in the Tickets being resold. If the Ticket Applicant’s Tickets are not resold, no resale proceeds will be returned to the Ticket Applicant. Other than through the official Ticket Resale platform, resales of Tickets are prohibited, as identified in the GTCs.
How do I make a Ticket Resale Request?
The Ticket Applicant must:
(1) Submit a Ticket Resale request. The Ticket Applicant must submit a request online within the Ticket Applicant’s “View your application” menu item accessed through FIFA.com or at a FIFA Ticketing Centre in South Africa within the Resale Time Window (as identified below). For PMA Supporters, depending on the requirements of the particular Member Association, additional restrictions may apply.
(2) Provide a means for receipt of the resale proceeds. The Ticket Applicant must confirm the process pursuant to which resale proceeds are provided to him from the FWCTC in accordance with the policies described below.
When do I make a request?
A Ticket Applicant may submit his Ticket Resale request at any time between 15 April 2010 up until three days prior to the start of a match, provided that the hard (paper) Ticket has not been printed yet. Once a Ticket is printed, it is no longer eligible for the Ticket Resale programme.
What is the fee for this service?
An administration fee of 10% of the price printed on the Face of a Ticket (Face Price) rounded up to the nearest dollar for each Ticket identified in the Ticket Resale Request that is actually resold (with a maximum of $20 per Ticket Resale Request) will be deducted from the amount paid to the Ticket Applicant (for transactions in South African Rands, the maximum administration fee is ZAR 140). Therefore, if the Tickets are resold, the original Ticket Applicant will be entitled to resale proceeds equal to the Face Price of the Tickets resold, less the administrative fee (and less any bank changes if any payment has to be made to the Ticket Applicant by bank transfer) per Ticket Resale Request. The new Ticket Applicant will pay the official published price applicable to the sale of Tickets at the time of sale.
Note that the original Ticket Applicant will not receive back any of the fees that he may have paid when originally purchasing the Ticket, such as the Team Specific Ticket (“TST”) Fee, Participating Member Association administration Fee, or Advanced Ticket Request Fee, if applicable.
The Ticket Applicant can submit any number of his guest Tickets, or all of his Tickets, for resale in any Ticket Resale Request. The administrative fee will be charged as a total amount based on each Ticket Resale Request transaction. This means that if a Ticket Applicant submits one Ticket Resale Request for all of his Tickets at one time, the administrative fee will be a maximum of $20/ZAR140. However, if the Ticket Applicant submits a few Tickets for resale in one Ticket Resale Request submission, and then later decides to submit additional Tickets for resale in another Ticket Resale Request submission, another administrative fee (maximum of $20/ZAR140 per submission) will be imposed for each separate Ticket Resale Request submission. As a reminder, the Ticket Applicant may not submit his own Ticket for resale and retain only the Guest Tickets.
When will my Tickets be resold?
No resales will be made until the original inventory of Tickets in a particular category for a specific Match (or TST Ticket product) have already sold-out once. Tickets submitted for resale will be placed in an inventory pool of available Tickets. Tickets will be resold based on actual demand by match and Ticket category. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOUR TICKETS WILL BE RESOLD.
When will I receive the proceeds from the resale?
If your Tickets are resold, resale proceeds will be provided no later than 4 weeks following the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. If the Ticket Applicant paid for Tickets using a payment card (other than FNB/Visa Official Mascot Prepaid Cards), resale proceeds will be provided to the Ticket Applicant by way of a credit to the Ticket Applicant’s payment card. If the Ticket Applicant paid for Tickets via bank transfer, resale proceeds will be made by bank transfer to the same account.If the Ticket Applicant paid for Tickets using a FNB Visa Official Mascot prepaid Card or cash at a FNB branch, the Ticket Applicant must contact the FWCTC to arrange a method for receiving resale proceeds using other methods approved by the FWCTC. The Ticket Applicant is responsible for determining the status of his resale request, and may do so by checking on the summary within his “View your application” menu item, contacting the FWCTC call centre or asking about the status at a FIFA Ticketing Centre. The applicant is also responsible for making sure that he has provided the FWCTC with an effective method of providing payment of the resale proceeds, and should check with the FWCTC if the status of the request indicates that the Tickets have been resold, but no resale proceeds have been received within the time period identified, to make sure that there was not a problem with the payment method provided by the Ticket Applicant.
The resale proceeds will be provided in dollars or rand depending on the currency used in the transaction as applicable Once resale proceeds are credited to the Ticket Applicant’s payment card account, the conversion ratesapplicable for conversion into other currencies are dependent on the banks or payment card companies involved. If resale proceeds have to be provided by bank transfer, the amount will be reduced by the cost of the bank transfer fees. Currency fluctuations may further reduce the amount of the resale proceeds.
The name of the individual Ticket Applicant must be the same as the name of the individual on the payment card being provided with the credit, or the bank account to which the resale proceeds are being transferred.
What if the Tickets are not resold? What is the Ticket Fund?
Ticket Applicants will have the opportunity to give Tickets they cannot use to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticket Fund, which is a programme designed to allocate tickets for worthy social and development initiatives within South Africa For more information regarding the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticket Fund, go to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/ticketfund/index.html.
Via the Ticket Fund 120,000 category 4 tickets have already been allocated to initiatives ranging from providing tickets to the stadium construction workers, to school children, to street soccer programmes, to programmes directed to fighting aids, to reading initiatives. Your tickets could be added to those already allocated and being distributed via the programmes that have already been established.
If you anticipate that you may want to give your Tickets to the Ticket Fund, please do so as far in advance of the match as possible. Depending on when you elect to give your Tickets to the Ticket Fund, we will endeavour to distribute them via the worthy social and development initiatives described above. In any event, any tickets you allocate to the Ticket Fund after the applicable Ticket Fund deadline for a particular match may not be able to be used by the Ticket Fund. To find out the applicable Ticket Fund deadline for each match, prior to electing to give your Tickets to the Ticket Fund, please contact enquiries@2010fwctc.com. Otherwise, if you elected to put your Tickets to resale, but the Tickets have not been resold, then the Ticket Applicant may pick up the Tickets at a FIFA Ticketing Centre before the match.
Can I change my mind after submitting a Ticket for resale?
A Ticket Applicant can change his/ her mind, and take his/ her Tickets out of the programme at any time, so long as the Tickets have not yet been resold, by selecting the option on his “View your application” page online or by returning to the FIFA Ticketing Centre at any time prior to the Ticket being resold. Ticket Applicants can refer to the status of their account and their Tickets by reviewing the status reflected in “View your application” through FIFA.com/2010 to see if their Tickets have been resold by contacting the FWCTC call centre or by asking about the status of the account at a FIFA Ticketing Centre. If the Tickets have not been resold, and the Ticket Applicant did not check the box to give his Tickets to the Ticket Fund, the Tickets will be available for the Ticket Applicant to pick up at the FIFA Ticketing Centres. Once Tickets have been printed, they are no longer eligible for the Ticket Resale programme.
Can I change my mind after electing to give Tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticket Fund?
Once a Ticket Applicant elects to give Tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticket Fund, it is not possible for the Ticket Applicant to change his / her mind and take the Tickets out of the programme. Once the “Give to Ticket Fund” option has been selected, the distribution process commences to allocate the Tickets for worthy social and development causes via the distribution channels established for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticket Fund.
What about TST Tickets?
Ticket Applicants who have purchased TSTs will only be permitted to submit the entire TST series of tickets for resale (and not any parts thereof).
What if I did not buy Tickets through an Authorized Sales Channel?
Any person who may hold a Ticket obtained from an unauthorized sales channel is ineligible to use the procedures described here. Any such Tickets are held in violation of the GTCs and are not considered legitimate. Access to the stadium may be denied. In any event, the FWCTC will have no record of you actually holding any Tickets, so it would not be possible for us to facilitate any transfers of any such Tickets.
Why do I have to use FIFA’s Ticket Resale Platform?
Tickets transferred via any channel other than authorized sales channels or in accordance with this Ticket Transfer Policy are invalid. This Ticket Transfer Policy has been designed to support the purposes identified in the next paragraph entitled “What is the purpose of the Ticket Transfer policy?”
What is the purpose of the Ticket Transfer policy?
The purposes for the rule limiting Ticket transfers include: (a) event security, (b) consumer protection, and (c) economic fairness. Please refer to the explanation identified in the Authorized Sales Channel menu item in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing pages of FIFA.com/2010. In addition to the considerations reflected there, please be aware that this Ticket Transfer Policy aims to:
(a) ensure that Tickets are sold to true fans of the event, not those who are simply seeking to buy and resell tickets for their own commercial gain;
(b) ensure that once sold, all Tickets to all matches are actually used by true fans;
(c) maximize access to Tickets for true fans;
(d) provide opportunities for consumers who, after successfully acquiring Tickets later realize that they (or their Guests) are unable to attend the event or single matches, so as to avoid financial loss for those consumers;
(e) provide a safe, legitimate means for consumers to transact in a secondary market for tickets without being subject to the misleading practices of those who engage in unauthorized resales and undermine policies established by FIFA;
(f) support the integrity of the main source of funding for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Organising Committee, especially considering the non-profit nature of the local organizing committee, the public funding required for infrastructure developments to support the event, the national significance of the event to the country of South Africa and the international significance of the event throughout the world; and
(g) facilitate security plans and policies for the event.
