10 February 2011

Azkal fans line up for nothing

By FRANCIS SANTIAGO

BACOLOD CITY — Lyn Narciso and her one-year-old son John woke up at 6 a.m. Wednesday hoping they would get one of the free 10,000 tickets to the Philippines-Mongolia football game promised by organizers.

When they reached the stadium, what greeted them was a long line of fans numbering in the tens of hundreds, all of them also hoping to secure a ticket and witness one of the most awaited sporting events in the city.
She thought of going home, but since she was there already, she took her spot and lined up. She stood under the sun for an hour, then two and then five. And it was then that she and the rest were told that there would be no tickets available.

If there was a reason to riot, this was it. But the fans were pacified when they were told that they can watch the match on giant screens outside the Panaad Stadium.

But others screamed their hearts out and shouted: “Mongolia, Mongolia, Mongolia kami.”

“Nakakainis sila. Ang tagal namin nag-aantay dito wala naman palang ipamimigay. Sayang ang pagod namin,” said the elder Narciso while holding her son who, like many others, was visibly exhausted from the noontime heat.

Inspector Geruld Huerva of the Negros Occidental Police, who is in charge of crowd control at the main entrance of the stadium, estimated that more than 3,000 showed up for the free tickets but none got any as most of the tickets had reportedly been sold or distributed to select fans.

Disgruntled fans made the thumbs down sign aimed at Philippine Football Federation (PFF) media officer Bong Pedralvez, who had the unenviable task of announcing over a megaphone that there were no more tickets.

What drew the ire of the fans was that the announcement was made when many of them had lined up for almost five hours.

Pedralvez said the PFF had nothing to do with distributing the tickets since they were given to officials of the Negros provincial government and Negros Football Association.

So why did the fans line up at the Panaad Stadium early morning Wednesday?

Some fans blamed ABS-CBN’s local TV Patrol news program, which reportedly announced Tuesday night that free tickets will be given Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the stadium.

“Napanood pa nga namin si governor (Alfredo Maranon Jr. of Negros Occidental) sa interview at ina-nounce nila yung bigayan ng ticket,” a fan said.

Reached for comment, PFF president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta said the report by ABS-CBN was wrong.

“Mali yun,” Araneta said. “We will no longer distribute tickets on the day of the match as advised by the match commissioner from AFC.”


Manila Bulletin

4 comments:

  1. Araneta's comments are the purest form of buck-passing bull. The AFC has absolutely no say in how or when match tickets are distributed. [The match commissioner was a fresh-off-the plane Malaysian,for God's sake.]

    This whole free ticket fiasco was a disgraceful con from day one. Either the PFF or Negros FA have been grossly negligent or uncaringly corrupt. No football fan deserves to be treated with such callous contempt.

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  2. 'Di ba matagal nang inannounce na ubos na ang tiket?!

    With that, I think it was not the fault of the PFF.

    It was the fault of the media for announcing the so-called distribution of the free tickets, and the fans for not keeping up with the facts.

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  3. "No football fan deserves to be treated with such callous contempt."-----first post


    real fans should have known when tickets are to be distributed. the pff had announced them and the media had reported it as well. go look in the archives. i think this game was one of the most publicized game to be held here. for fans not to have heard of ticket distribution sked from pff is something i cant understand.


    it was said that a local news program had reported that there's still tickets. blame them not pff.

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  4. Sorry guys, let's not go from the sublime to the ridiculous and start blaming the fans. Any disinformation could have been avoided if the PFF Media Officer had released clear factual statements on each of the days leading up to the game. Which he did not.
    Why did he not contact Bacolod radio and/or TV stations to spread the word?
    Why was a 'Don't waste your time' notice not posted at the ticket office door?
    Why did thousands have to sweat outside for hours before the PFF rep told them to go home?
    And how dare you say 'real fans would have known...'?
    That's an arrogant insult to the innocent.

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