Women’s World Cup: FIFA ‘doing everything possible to sit families together’

Fifa says it is “doing everything it can” to ensure families will be seated together at next month’s Women’s World Cup in France.

Fans claim they have not been allocated seats together due to a ticketing error, with some saying they have been separated from their children.

The tournament’s Twitter account was inundated with fans complaining, and many have contacted BBC Sport.

Fifa said the problem will affect “only a very small number of fans”.

On Tuesday, it said “less than 1% of fans” who requested tickets for the semi-finals and final will be affected.

But the issue appears much more widespread, with fans saying the problem is affecting group matches and other knock-out games too.

In a new statement, Fifa said matches that were in high demand meant “the only tickets remaining were for individual seats”.

It added: “Of the 1.3 million tickets on sale for the tournament it is estimated that not having side-by-side seats will affect only a very small number of fans.

“Fifa and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) are continuing to work towards finding the best solution for all fans attending the Women’s World Cup and, in particular, are doing everything they can to ensure that families will always be seated together at each and every match.”

The Lionesses have said fans who bought multiple tickets from Football Association website will be sitting next to each other.

The Free Lionesses, a fanzine run by the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF), said the issue “threatens to spoil a keenly anticipated summer of football.”

 

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