FAM clarifies Ethiopia, Egypt match high ticket charges

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has said they had nothing to do with the ticket sales of the game between Ethiopia and Egypt at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on Thursday.

This followed the sales of the tickets going at higher price at K3,000 ordinary stands while that of the game against Flames on Sunday was pegged at K2,000. The VIP tickets for their game against Flames were sold at K8,000 while for the Egypt match was at K10,000.

FAM commercial and marketing director Limbani Matola said the association were engaged only to facilitate the organisation of the match.

“This game was organised by Ethiopia as the hosts. However they engaged just to facilitate the organisation of the match. We noticed the confusion when most fans contacted us to sell them tickets. We were not selling tickets and we decision to come up with charges was done by them,” he said.

Matola said Ethiopia Football Federation had put the ticket sales higher than Malawi’s match because of their choice owing to their standards in their group.

He said, initially they want the tickets to be sold at an equivalent of $100 and $50 as tickets of the match of such profile would have attracted in their country.

 “They said that match in their country would have attracted charges in the region of $100 which is about K10,000 for ordinary tickets. We reasoned with them that this is on the higher side, that’s why we settled for K3000,” he said.

Meanwhile, FAM said they would benefit from the organisation of the match, but were committed to disclose the actual amount.

Ethiopia will also pay user fee for the Bingu National Stadium which they chose as alternative home venue following the banning of their national stadium.