BFF to stick to online ticketing for HK, India matches

Despite hassles in online ticket purchasing during this month's FIFA friendly against Bhutan and Asian Cup Qualifier against Singapore at the National Stadium in Dhaka, the Bangladesh Football Federation is set to continue selling tickets online for the next matches of the national team.

Tajwar Awal, member of BFF's technical committee, admitted to the media in a press conference on Sunday that fans had to go through a lot of hassles in procuring tickets online and faced other logistical issues in entering the venue and watching the matches. He, however, said that the online ticketing system will continue in Bangladesh's next home matches against Hong Kong (October 9) and India (November 18).

The Singapore match, held on June 10, created enormous hype among people who people tried securing tickets in droves, from both within the country and abroad. More than 21,000 tickets out of a capacity of 23,300 were sold online. However, the system collapsed a number of times, causing frustration for the fans. The ticketing company, tickify, and BFF, both had attributed the issue to a 'cyber attack' caused by too much traffic.

Speaking about the issue following a meeting of the technical committee, Tajwar said, "We had capacity crowd in the Singapore match and near-full capacity crowd in the Bhutan match (June 4) – the first matches at the venue after four-and-a-half years. The response from public was enormous. There were mistakes in conducting the games which we have identified.

"The main issue was ticketing. We are working on rectifying the mistakes in ticketing from those two games. We believe the ticketing system we have employed is the right way to go. We will continue to conduct ticketing online in the future. We want to make smooth transaction of online ticketing," Tajwar said, adding that they have not decided whether a new client will be employed or the same company will be given the responsibility the next time.

The BFF committee member also said that are trying to resolve issues of gate entry and ensure a smooth viewing experience for fans by consulting with their vendors as well as with the National Sports Council.

Tajwar, meanwhile, said that they have moved away from the initial thought of removing and replacing the grass on the pitch as they feel it might be difficult to prepare the grass with the next matches in October and November.

He also informed that the expenditures for hosting the two matches were covered up by the revenue earned from the matches, although he did not disclose whether there was any profit made by the BFF from these two matches.