GFF Confirm Super Cup Tickets to be Sold on July 12

Following a short briefing at the Georgian Football Federation HQ, it has been announced that 22,000 tickets for the Super Cup match to be played between Barcelona and Sevilla in August, will go on sale from 9am on Sunday 12 July at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium.

Initially, 30,000 tickets were to be sold online from June 22, however exclusive ticket sellers biletebi.ge's website was quickly overwhelmed and crashed after selling less than 100 tickets.

UEFA then agreed to divide the sale in two, with one allocation reserved for Georgian residents and the other for international sales.

However, a second attempt by biletebi.ge to sell tickets on June 30 proved largely unsuccessful with fewer then 2,000 tickets sold in 24 hours. The following day, the international sale did take place and was apparently successful, with a further 4,300 tickets sold.

The management of ticket sales has been widely criticized by fans both inside and outside of Georgia and biletebi.ge has announced that it expects to be on the receiving end of UEFA punishment for its failure to fulfill its ticket selling assignment, for which it had been granted a reported $45,000.

The ticket drama, which has left tens of thousands of fans frustrated with some even pledging violence on biletebi.ge's Facebook page, may not be over yet. Sunday's proposed sale is likely to attract tens of thousands of fans and, with only 22,000 tickets to dispense and each person being allowed to purchase as many as four tickets, there will be several thousand disappointed supporters missing out on arguably the biggest sporting occasion on Georgian soil since independence. Keeping order in such circumstances may be a difficult proposition.

Alastair Watt