Japan"s thirst for Asian Cup tickets in Vietnam

Tickets for the Asian Football Championship will be officially sold next month but football fans have began to book tickets now. Surprisingly, a large number of Japanese people have booked tickets for matches in Vietnam.

So far, Japanese people, not Vietnamese, have booked the highest number of tickets for football matches of the Asian Football Cup in Vietnam on the website www.aleale.com.vn

An employee of VFD, a ticket distributor, said: SBig orders for tickets mainly come from Japan while Vietnamese fans seem to be hesitant.⬝

There are several reasons for this situation. The first is the ticket price for matches held in Vietnam are cheap compared to the living standard of Japanese people. A first-class ticket is priced at only VND150,000 (less than US$10) while in Japan, to watch the Japanese national team, fans have to pay $30-$40 per ticket.

The second is that the Asian Cup will take place in mid July, the travel season of Japanese people. They can come to Vietnam to travel and watch football at the same time.

According to VFD, travel firms are the first that asked about tickets for the Asian Cup and the first to book tickets via the Internet. The final round of the Asian Cup is expected to be a lucrative opportunity for Vietnamese tourism companies and they don”t want to miss it.

To prepare for this event, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has decided to establish sub-committees serving the Asian Cup 2007.

There are ten sub-committees: the Sub-committee for material conditions, Sub-committee for finance-taxation, Sub-committee for commercial rights, Sub-committee for logistics-protocol, Sub-committee for press and information technology, Sub-committee for security, Sub-committee for invitation ticket distribution, Sub-committee for health and doping tests, Sub-committee for national team, and the secretariat.

SWe will try our best to organise a successful Asian Cup not only in technical aspects but also to create a friendly and warm Vietnam in the eyes of international friends,⬝ VFF Secretary General Tran Quoc Tuan said.

The expenditures for organising the event will mainly come from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and at AFC”s request, football players and officials will be served at five-star standard.

VNN