BRUSSELS- The European Commission claimed success Monday in securing cheaper tickets for fans to next year's football World Cup, by forcing FIFA to allow different payment methods to buy their prized seats.
The European Union (EU)'s executive arm, responding to a complaint by British consumer group, pressed the world footballing body to abandon a system which led to some fans outside the eurozone paying high bank charges.
Specifically it said that fans not in the 12-member bloc sharing Europe's single currency will now be able to make domestic money transfers in their home country, instead of sometimes expensive international payments in euros.
"Following these changes, football fans will benefit from a fairer choice of payment methods for World Cup tickets," said EU competition chief Neelie Kroes, announcing the response to a complaint by British consumer group Which?
"Fans from all over Europe want fairer access to these tickets, especially as it may be many years before the World Cup will be back in Europe," she added in a statement.
Under the new arrangements, FIFA and the German Football Association will open bank accounts in the 16 non-eurozone countries which are members of the European Economic Area (EAA), and accept payments in the local currency.
The FIFA change of payment system applies to the second sales period of tickets for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which began Monday with a closing date of November 15.
In total 2.93 million World Cup tickets are on sale to the general public and a first batch of 812,000 tickets were sold in the first sales period.
Ticket prices range from 35 euros to 600 euros for football's biggest showpiece running from June 9 until July 9 2006.
The 12 eurozone countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
The other 16 EAA states are: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
05/02/2005 14:53 GMT