Abby Brammell

By Sportsmail Reporter

Chaos: Huge crowds turned up to buy tickets


South Africa's preparations for the World Cup may be stepping up on the pitch - but with two weeks to go before the tournament begins thefts, a reported blackout and chaos surrounding ticket sales has done little to inspire confidence.

Carlos Alberto Parreira's much-derided side beat Colombia in Johannesburg - but TV viewers were reportedly unable to show the winning goal because of local power cuts, and then to add to the embarrassment, the South American team had cash stolen from their nearby team hotel.

According to police, Colombia players returned to their rooms after training on Tuesday to find the money was missing, with reports saying about £2,000 was taken from suitcases.

The police spokesman Eugene Opperman said two people appeared in court Thursday on theft charges.

The incident occurred at a five-star hotel in the plush northern Johannesburg suburbs - the same hotel where Slovenia will be based during the World Cup.

Egypt's football team had nearly £1,750 stolen from their Johannesburg hotel during last year's Confederations Cup.

Elsewhere around 700 people pushed and shoved, and organizers threatened to shut down a World Cup ticket centre, as fans scrambled for a last chance to watch the tournament's biggest games - only to discover that FIFA's systems had crashed.

Two hours into Friday's final release, no one had been able to buy any of the 160,000 tickets still available for the world's biggest football tournament.


Friendly? South Africa played Colombia on Thursday


FIFA says service provider Match was experiencing 'significant delays' due to technical problems across all sales channels.

Chief organizer Danny Jordaan said he wanted to 'sincerely apologise' to the fans, some of whom had been queuing for two days, for the problems. FIFA says it has demanded a full report from Match.


source: dailymail