The Fifa Secretary General has acknowledged New Zealand’s lack of Women’s World Cup ticket purchases and also talks growth in women's football. Video / NZ Herald
Fifa is confident Kiwis will get behind the Women’s World Cup despite a lack of ticket purchases for the tournament so far.
Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura is in New Zealand to meet the Government and Sports Minister Grant Robertson to liaise on strategies for the competition.
Last week thegoverning body celebrated a “critical milestone” of one million tickets sold, which Samoura confirmed had surpassed what was achieved in the same timeframe for the 2019 World Cup in France.
However, just 250,000 of those were for the 29 matches in New Zealand — less than half of the possible 600,000 tickets available.
A month from kick-off, Samoura told the Herald she’s “not worried” about the lower interest in Aotearoa.
“We are working on a strategy to make sure that we have a full stage when we’re going to play here.”
Samoura said the investment in Australian host cities — where most of the total tickets have been sold — has been “commendable” and admitted there’s been more hype across the Tasman.
“[Australia] has taken it very seriously because they have a very strong national women’s team to invest in football.
“More importantly they invest in facilities around the country to make sure that after the kickoff — because this is a phenomenon that we always see that when the women’s World Cup is over — you’ve got thousands and thousands of parents coming to get their children registered.”
Australia are expected to last much further in the tournament than co-hosts New Zealand. Photo / Photosport
Samoura said lower ticket sales in New Zealand could be due to “cultural behaviours”, adding that she believes “Kiwis are late ticket purchasers”.
“People think that they can just walk in the stadium the last hour before the match starts and get a ticket.”
Samoura said she doesn’t want New Zealanders to miss out.
“This competition is taking place for the first time in this country and what we would like really to avoid is people, who should have been in the stadium, having to miss a game or two just because they are coming late.”
Samoura believes Kiwis may be unaware of the affordable ticket prices.
“I know that for the big competitions, the tickets price are much higher and maybe that is also a reason people don’t feel excited to come.
“They go from $20 for adults to $10 for children and we will be trying as much as possible to have early release from our commercial affiliate so they can be made available to the fans.”
Samoura said there were no regrets in choosing New Zealand to co-host and this was one of Fifa’s visions to grow the game in smaller footballing nations.
“Our aim is also to make sure that where football is being loved, we take the game there.”
