The government has purchased 1,346 tickets to enable selected supporters, government officials, members of some identified bodies and political parties and other individuals to attend Ghana's three 2010 World Cup preliminary round matches in South Africa. The move comes in the wake of a failure by most organised supporters groups in the country to raise money to purchase tickets they had requested for. However, in spite of the initial investment in tickets, government is looking for a much bigger funding to finance the trip to South Africa for nearly 450 Ghanaian football enthusiasts. Almost $120,000 was invested by the Ministry of Youth and Sports for match tickets as part of a bailout plan to ensure the Black Stars enjoy massive support in South Africa after only one organised supporters group, Millennium Supporters Union (MISUGHA), made good their application to purchase a total of 633 tickets at $88 each for Ghana's games against Serbia, Australia and Germany. According to the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Nortey Dua, the biggest challenge is the high cost of return air tickets but noted that government hopes to fall on corporate sponsorship and other fund-raising activities to help finance air transport and affordable accommodation. "We will be giving tickets to MPs from the Majority and Minority groups, political parties, government officials, the clergy and some supporters groups according to a formula our planning committee has devised," Nii Nortey Dua told the Graphic Sports. Ghana Football Association (GFA) Executive Committee Member, Mr Fred Crentsil, told the Graphic Sports that despite extended deadlines given to the supporters, they failed to meet their financial obligations to FIFA and, therefore, football's world governing body had no other alternative than to re-allocate the tickets to other Ghanaians who had applied for them and were on the waiting list. Following FlFA's cancellation of the initial allocation to the supporters after failing to meet the final deadline (March 30) for payment, the ministry made a request to FIFA to be allocated some tickets for which FIFA released 437 tickets for Ghana's opening match with Serbia, 423 for the Australia game and 486 tickets for the final group match with Germany at Johannesburg’s Soccer City. FIFA has always maintained strict rules on ticket purchase, and in line with those guidelines, the GFA since December of last year had met with the supporters groups to brief them on the processes for acquiring tickets, among others, said Mr Crentsil who supervises the ticket allocation. He explained that many of the groups, including Ghana National Supporters Union (GHANSU), Nationwide Supporters Union (NSU), Supports Union of Ghana (SUGHA), among others, complained about the astronomical cost of the tickets and requested for extension of deadlines in order to seek support from corporate sponsors. "FIFA allocated tickets to all participating FAs and advised that we establish football allocating groups within the football fraternity to be given the first option to purchase tickets. We therefore met the supporters and took them through the application processes even before FIFA’s first window for sales opened between December 9 and January 13," Mr Crentsil said. After the first deadline expired, the GFA sought FIFA's intervention for an extension to the middle of February and after yet another plea FIFA shifted the cutoff date to March 15. But after they again failed to make payment by March 30, FIFA decided to cancel the requests and re-allocate the tickets to other Ghanaians. Even though the FIFA has opened the window for online sales again, the GFA is no longer receiving applications, and interested Ghanaian football fans must apply directly to FIFA and pay with an electronic payment system (credit cards), or by downloading a form, completing the registration and then posting a hard copy to FIFA in Zurich. Source: Graphic Sports