More than a dozen World Cup fans who bought tickets online were denied entry to the Atlanta Stadium prior to the match between Spain and Cape Verde on Monday. So, not only did they not get to see the matches that they traveled to watch, but they say they were scammed out of hundreds of dollars.
One of those World Cup fans, Surenere Paudel, told AfricaNews that he spent more than $1,400 on tickets for his wife and two daughters. He and other fans claim they were given match information and seat assignments, but they never received the barcode required to enter the stadium.
“Yeah, I got that ticket almost six months ago,” he said. “I go on the website and work on FIFA when they release and they direct me on the StubHub website and I got a ticket and then they sent me a seat number and everything and then after I tried to reach out for a barcode and I could not get it.”
“There’s a lot of people and like everyone’s complaining in the same thing,” said Gyan Paudel, Surenere’s daughter. “It’s like they’re putting in like a random email for you and then nobody can log in to their app or whatever to access their tickets and the barcode isn’t showing up.
“So, it’s like giving you seat numbers. It’s giving you where you’re going to be. It’s telling you what time you need to arrive, but the only thing is it’s not giving you the barcode that you can scan up there.”
Several fans had no idea they didn’t have tickets until they arrived at the stadium
Another fan, Bina Ramroop, told The Associated Press that she bought her tickets in January and was told that they would arrive just before the World Cup begins. She showed the receipt on her phone, which revealed she paid $969.72 for the tickets.
“It was his birthday, his 13th birthday, and we bought it for him for his birthday,” she said, referring to a young boy standing next to her wearing a Spain jersey. “We paid a lot of money just he could have… and he plays soccer. He’s on a team, he’s going to Portugal in a couple of weeks with his team, and he’s just so excited to attend a game and I thought it was a perfect gift for him at the time. And now, that’s it. I have to look at his face. I’m heartbroken. Because this is ridiculous. It’s been really stressful. Very, very stressful.”
Another large group of World Cup fans had their tickets canceled just days before kickoff
According to NBC Bay Area, just days before kickoff, dozens soccer fans who purchased World Cup tickets straight from FIFA months prior had their purchases invalidated because of “fraudulent activity.” FIFA informed one of the fans via email that 461 tickets were being canceled after being reported as fake.
One fan, Paul Dufresne, said he had planned the trip with his daughter for Saturday’s World Cup match between Switzerland and Qatar. The family booked a hotel and paid $720 for a pair of tickets on FIFA’s website in April. Last week, FIFA sent them an email saying the tickets had been canceled.
When he contacted FIFA, they escalated his case, but eventually confirmed the cancellation and offered no explanation. When he contacted his bank, they said they could not find any evidence of fraud. Dufresne became even more irate when he discovered that his tickets had already been resold.
“How often is the World Cup coming to the Bay? Is that going to happen anytime soon? The rest of my lifetime? No,” Dufresne said.