Singapore match ‘tickets sold out’

Tajwar Awal, member of Bangladesh Football Federation's Competitions Committee, on Tuesday informed the media that all the gallery tickets and majority of VIP-category tickets for the Asian Cup Qualifiers fixture between Bangladesh and Singapore have been sold out through the designated online platform.

Speaking to reporters in the afternoon, Tajwar claimed that there has been a huge demand for tickets for the June 10 fixture to be played at the National Stadium in Dhaka, with tickets brought from outside the country as well as from inside.

Following the four-year-long renovation, the country's premier multisport venue will stage the eagerly-anticipated fixture of the Asian Cup Qualifiers five days after hosting a friendly match against Bhutan on June 4.

The renovated venue has a seating capacity of 22,660, with most tickets, except for corporate and hospitality boxes, supposed to be sold online through ticketing platform, Tickify. The ticket prices were set from Tk 400 to Tk 5,000.

However, the experience for fans eager to buy tickets to see Hamza Choudhury and Co take on Singapore have not been a pleasant one to say the least. Following an opening-night fiasco, which Tickify and BFF later claimed to be the result of a 'cyber attack', the fans had to go through a long waiting game on Monday night. While some fans eventually succeeded in getting virtual receipts, others were left empty-handed.

Later on Tuesday, the site went up again for about an hour before it was announced by both BFF and Tickify that all tickets had been sold out, leaving many wondering how all tickets were sold out so quickly when the BFF had on Monday announced that the eastern gallery tickets would be sold later.

Iftikhar Ifty, founder of Tickify, told The Daily Star around noon yesterday that the short window they had opened saw smooth selling of tickets.

Speaking about the huge demand for tickets, Tajwar said: "Last night we witnessed 30,000-plus people searching for tickets online in a five-minute span. We created a queue system, there were two or three DDoS attacks again, but we successfully prevented those. We saw that tickets were being sold by the ticketing company each minute."

"Expats have applied for tickets too. Tickets have been brought from Teknaf to Tetulia, from USA to Australia," Tajwar said. "There was one from Uganda too."

Tajwar said that they were going through a forensic audit to find out any mismatches or any tickets remaining unsold. Someone with valid proof will definitely get tickets, he said, in case they haven't got their tickets yet.

When asked about the possibility of counterfeit tickets or black marketing, Tajwar claimed that a magistrate will be on duty to apprehend black marketers or counterfeit ticket sellers. He added that that with the ticketing issue for the Singapore match solved, they would open up online ticket sales for the Bhutan match on Wednesday and then move on to logistical issues related to organising a concert, setting up fan zones and ensuring the overall security of the area.