HA NOI — Hundreds of Vietnamese fans representing organisations registering for tickets for the forthcoming second leg, semi-final ASEAN Football Championship, AFF-Suzuki Cup match between Viet Nam and Malaysia queued for hours yesterday at the Viet Nam Football Federation office.
However, members of the public will struggle to get a ticket as demand is likely outstrip supply a day before the tickets go on general sale on Thursday.
Viet Nam will face Malaysia in the first leg away tomorrow, while the return match will be played at the 40,000-capacity My Dinh National Stadium on Saturday.
The VFF announced last week that it had begun receiving registrations for tickets from organisations yesterday, while fans could only purchase tickets at My Dinh Stadium, or via www.aleale.com.vn.
Due to high demand, people are only allowed to buy two tickets, with prices varying from VND100,000 to 400,000 (US$5-20).
"We're estimating that demand is three to four times the 40,000 capacity for the second leg," a ticket distributor Viet Nam Football Development JSC (VFD), staff member said.
"It's the biggest imbalance between demand and capacity we've ever seen for a football match in Viet Nam. Vietnamese fans are desperate to watch this game at the stadium rather than on TV," she said.
"Over 400 organisations registered to buy at least 2,000 tickets in just three hours this morning, but I'm sure that the figure will exceed the company's allocation of 8,000 tickets. In the last two years, we received 1,000 orders of 40 and 50 tickets each."
According to VFD, 40,000 tickets, included 4,000 invitations, have been allocated for the match, of which 8,000, only 20 per cent of total tickets, will be available for purchase via the internet or SMS text message.
Meanwhile, the match organising committee has also had to reserve a number of tickets for Malaysian fans, who are flocking to Viet Nam for the second leg match this weekend.
This will cause a serious shortage of tickets and many fans will find it next to impossible to see the semis.
Viet Nam narrowly qualified for the semi-final with a 1-0 win over Singapore in their last game, following a 7-1 trouncing of Myanmar and a bitter 2-0 loss to the Philippines.
For the final match between Viet Nam and Thailand two years ago, Vietnamese fans had to fork out up to VND3 million ($150) to ticket touts – a significant increase on the face value of VND80,000 ($4).
In the match between Viet Nam and the Brazilian Olympic team, fans had to pay VND3.2 million ($160), four times as much as original of VND700,000 ($35), for a black market ticket. — VNS
