Bin Hamman Ticket Scandal

Sportsmail can today reveal that tickets issued to president-elect of the Asian Football Federation Mohammed Bin Hammam, a close supporter of tarnished FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have been sold to England fans on the black market.

These supporters last night revealed they paid $500 (GBP350) more than the face value for tickets bearing Bin Hammam's name for the Group F matches against Sweden and Argentina.

In a separate inquiry Sportsmail obtained tickets that had originated from Bin Hammam's own Qatar FA and the Argentina FA, whose president Julio Grondona is a Blatter supporter.

The trail leads to the heart of FIFA's executive and begins with a ticket agency called Razor Gator, based in the plush Los Angeles suburb of Beverley Hills. The tickets sold to the England fans and Sportsmail came from this agency. They were available on the internet and prices ranged from $650-$900 for the England-Argentina game in Sapporo today.

A row of tickets with the same name
Razor Gator are proud of their ticket sources. Consumer relations executive Mario Sgambelluri said:

'The name that will appear could be any one of the following: a company name, a sponsor name, a federation's name or another individual's name. This is the same policy as all past seven World Cups that we've handled and we've never had a problem with any of our customers being allowed to enter the stadiums with these tickets.'

But last night England fan Tony Dobbie said: 'This is quite disgusting. When I got my tickets it never occurred to me they'd come from such a source. Every fan would be shocked that the tickets issued to someone on the FIFA executive appear on the black market.'

Mr Dobbie provided Sportsmail with a copy of his ticket which clearly carries the name Mr M Bin Hammam Al-Abdulla. He added:

'When I got into the Saitama Stadium I was chatting with fans in the same row and they all had tickets with the same name. A sports lawyer sitting next to me checked his ticket for England's game with Argentina and that had the same name on it. It's a disgrace.'

When Mr Dobbie tried to contact the Japanese organising committee he was brushed off and a FIFA spokesman initially tried to suggest there was no problem with black-market tickets.

Then FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said:

'This is the first we've heard of this and we're convinced Mr Bin Hammam will be equally surprised. It has to be understood it can happen that tickets purchased in good faith can sometimes finish up in the wrong hands. I'm certain Mr Bin Hammam will help us to understand what has happened in this particular case.'

FIFA guidelines allow executive committee members to buy up to 10 tickets for each group game and five per match for subsequent rounds. However, it will be a great embarrassment to FIFA that Bin Hammam, accused of bankrolling the Blatter election in 1998, and the oil-rich state of Qatar are involved in such a scandal.

Bin Hammam may not be the only one 
It is not the first time members of the FIFA executive have allegedly sold tickets on the black market. In the shambles of the 1998 World Cup ticket distribution in France, two FIFA executive members were accused of selling tickets to American agencies.

There is also concern in this World Cup at the number of tickets some FIFA members are requesting. One is said to have asked for 155 tickets for the Final. The tickets are selling at more than GBP2,750 each on the internet. That would be a profit of almost GBP455,000 on one match.

The role of the individual countries has been crucial to the black-market problem. Many associations not only failed to sell all the tickets they ordered - Spain purchased only around 200 - but did not inform FIFA's Manchester-based distribution agents Byrom with the purchasers' names as required.

This meant tickets, already being printed late because of the countries' failure to meet deadlines and Byrom's internal problems, were distributed bearing just the name of the national federation rather than the individual, allowing touts to sell them on with no worry from either buyer or seller.

Cooper said: 'The sales from the national federations did not come up to expectation, but we are not blaming anyone until the situation is fully understood.'