Ticket woes not new to Caf tournaments
Ticketing challenges have continued to plague Kenya’s organisation of 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan).
The official ticketing portal, chan.mookh.com, crashed on Tuesday almost as soon as tickets for Harambee Stars’ highly anticipated quarter-final clash with Madagascar on Friday at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani went on sale.
Mookh had announced on their website that tickets for the match would go on sale at 12 noon on Tuesday.
To the disappointment and frustration of many, the portal relented to the traffic immediately, announcing its defeat with graphics and nomenclature of internet server malfunction.
Mookh released a statement later, offering apologies for failure on their part and thanking fans for their patience. They also pleaded for support and understanding as they dealt with automated bots that had overwhelmed their system, causing it to crash.
On Wednesday morning, order had been restored. Fans could finally buy tickets and a timer on the website told them how long they had to wait to transact.
Waiting took minutes to hours as many Kenyans complained they had failed to obtain a ticket. Uganda was also experiencing delays while purchase of tickets for the Tanzania versus Morocco game went on smoothly.
Ticketing issues are not alien to CAF competitions. At 2019 Afcon in Egypt, locals complained at being priced out of watching matches in the stadiums, as reported by Arab News in June 2019.
Egyptians also complained about Tazkarti, the online ticketing platform, experiencing multiple technical hitches as it struggled to respond to high traffic.
Before buying tickets, fans at 2019 Afcon had to set up a Fan ID on Tazkarti, a process that was again plagued by technical hitches.
Similarly, during the 2021 Afcon tournament held in Cameroon in January 2022, locals felt mocked by CAF’s overestimation of their spending power. Ticket prizes were ranging between Central African Franc (CFA) 4,000 and 20,000 (about Sh900 to Sh4,500).
Only a few fans could afford tickets for matches. Even then, tickets remained scarce. Nigeria’s Vanguard reported Super Eagles fans being forced to buy tickets at exorbitant prices on the black market.
During 2022 Chan hosted in Algeria in January 2023, high demand for tickets to the Desert Foxes matches led to campaigns by CAF and the tournament’s Local Organising Committee to urge fans to watch games on TV if they failed to obtain a ticket.
Tickets at that tournament were also sold online.
At 2023 Afcon 2023, hosted in Cote d’Ivoire in January 2024, CAF President Patrice Motsepe complained about ticket touts and the black market.
Motsepe revealed he was unable to get tickets for family members who wanted to watch the tournament’s opening match. Motsepe was not alone in his protests. Fans and media also expressed wonder at matches being reported as sold out only to be played in front of almost empty stadiums.
“What happened is that some people bought tickets in disproportionate amounts and tried to resell them at abnormal prices,” Motsepe said.
Motsepe promised improvement but little seems to have changes going by the experiences at 2024 Chan.
CAF Head of TV and Communications Lux September described the situation as “normal” when he appeared in NTV’s Monday night sports talk show SportOn!.
“Even Uefa experiences them,” Lux said.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Sammy said efforts were being done to ensure fans obtained their tickets.
The government as meanwhile requested CAF to allow the Kenya game tomorrow be filled to the full 48,000 capacity of Moi International Sports Centre.
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