Organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations currently taking place in Cote d'Ivoire announced on Monday that they are taking several measures to fill more stadiums, after the opening match between the host country and Guinea Bissau, for which attendance was disappointing. The match took place on Saturday in front of about 37,000 spectators at the Alassane Ouattara stadium in Ebimpé, near Abidjan, which can accommodate up to 60,000.
Controversy quickly erupted as the match was sold out, with many Ivorians pointing to the responsibility of people who had bought dozens of tickets online to speculate and who had not managed to resell them in time.
On Monday, Ivorian Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé said he was taking "the problem into his own hands". "You will see the results within 48 hours," he added, recalling that ticketing was "a matter for the Confederation of African Football (CAF)". While Sunday's matches in Abidjan did not attract crowds, the Yamoussoukro stadium was fuller on Monday, especially for the match between Guinea and Cameroon (1-1).
Read also"The 2024 AFCON starts today!": we followed the matches of Senegal, Cameroon and Algeria in Paris
Just before the match between Algeria and Angola (1-1), which closed the day on Monday, the mayor of the city of Bouaké was filmed, in a video that has gone viral, handing out free tickets in the street to those who wanted to attend the match at the Stade la Paix, in the same city.
Don't be funny please. I have the longer video.
— The Kpakpato Sportsman (@LKsportif) January 15, 2024
"At the end of this first day of competition, many fans expressed their concern about a stadium that was not completely full," CAF and the AFCON Organising Committee (Cocan) said in a joint statement.
They first explained that of the 60,000 seats available in the stadium, only 50,786 were "usable" for a match, after removing the so-called "dead" seats, i.e. safety seats, replacement seats and seats with reduced visibility.
For Saturday's match, 47,000 tickets had been sold or made available to companies and institutions, the organisers also added, who "wish to reassure the population about the measures taken to guarantee easier access to the competition's ticket office".
Among them, they have assured in particular that they will put back on sale tickets reserved for fans of foreign nations or companies that have not found buyers.
"Aware of the high demand on the online ticketing platform and the difficulties it could cause, CAF and COCAN are actively encouraging people to go to physical points of sale to acquire their tickets," they continued, adding that about fifty of these points of sale are open throughout the Ivorian territory.
"We will take up the challenge of not playing any matches in an empty stadium," Cocan boss Francois Amichia promised before the competition. Attendances at the AFCON are traditionally low for most first-round matches.