Extra seating for All Whites clash

BY MICHAEL FOX

Last updated 15:22 04/11/2009

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Five hundred more football fans will get to watch the All Whites play Bahrain live in Wellington later this month after Football New Zealand announced extra seating today.

The All Whites play Bahrain at Westpac Stadium in a World Cup qualifier on November 14, with 34,500 tickets already sold a month out from the fixture.

Football New Zealand communications manager Jamie Scott said chairman Frank van Hattum had met with FIFA representatives in Zurich last week and had convinced them the proposal should go ahead.

There had been initial suggestions that up to 3000 extra seats could be added but Mr Scott said this was never a real possibility.

"I think 500 is manageable in terms of the security needs and access to toilets and all those sort of things as well."

The seats will be located at pitchside on the western side of the stadium.

He said FIFA rules meant having seats in front of the grandstand had to be okayed as the rules applied to all football fixtures worldwide.

"In a place like Germany or Spain or England it just wouldn't be a goer," he said.

"But we're not those countries so we just needed to convince FIFA that the security we've got in place and will go in place for the extra seats will be sufficient to mitigate any possible trouble."

The $39 seats will go on sale on Friday morning through Ticketek.

The last lot of extra seating, sold in September, sold out in 10 minutes, Mr Scott said.

"We always thought we were going to sell it out, with the size of the event, but we were surprised that it sold out a month in advance."

NZF Chief Executive Michael Glading said they were pleased to offer more affordable tickets as scalpers attempted to cash in.

"We're extremely disappointed that some people are scalping tickets and therefore profiteering through an event that we intentionally priced accessibly for football fans from all over the country," he said.

"But we can now offer 500 fans who missed out the chance to get their wish without having to be taken to the cleaners."

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