Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Sir / Madam,
Thank you for your reply.
I appreciate AFC/QLOC joint apology to the fans and the offer to refund money.
However, kindly note that the gates were closed much earlier than 18.05.
My wife and sons reached the stadium at 17.15 and I reached the stadium at 17.45 by then tall barricades were already in place to stop fans from entering the stadium. Although I agree that the gates were closed due to "security reason" are partly correct, the real reason for security concern is due to the free entrance allowed to thousands of people to fill the stadium, thus resulting in thousands of paid fans being turned away.
So, the statement that gates are closed at 18.05 is incorrect.
Therefore, an amendment to your press release, to reflect the actual cause of "security concern" as well as accurate time of the gates closure, would be much apprecited.
Thanks & regards
Rien
-------------------------------------------------
From: AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011Tickets [mailto:Tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 10:15 AM
To: Rien
Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Asian Cup Spectator,
In continuation to joint AFC/QLOC Daily Media Briefing held on 30 January 2011 at Main Media Centre, the QLOC would like once again to offer our apology for the fans that were not able to enter the Final Match, despite the fact that they had valid ticketing in their hands, due to the security concern which led to the closing of gates at 18:05.
Once again, we apologize to these fans, and have decided in conjunction with the AFC to refund all ticket-holders who have been denied access to the venue due to Security Closure of Gates.
Please see the detailed process at tickets.afcasiancup.com for applying for refunds and – as always – please do not hesitate to contact the QLOC at tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa for any further inquiries you may have.
Kindly be informed that the submission of the Refund Application Form will be from the 3rd-28th of February 2011.
Subject: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Sir / Madam,
It is with disappointment I write to you about the shameful behavior and treatment I met with (along with at least 10000 other fans) at Khalifa Stadium, Doha-Qatar for yesterday’s Australia vs Japan AFC final match.
Despite having valid, four (4), tickets which I booked over two months ago, my family & I could not enter the stadium.
When we reached the stadium at 5.15pm, we were told by policemen that we cannot go in as the stadium is full.
We waited till 7.15pm to get into the stadium, only to disappointed and pushed away by baton wielding policemen … so we returned home extremely disappointed.
This is disgraceful and shameful treatment of fans by a reputed football association.
In view of the above I request AFC to kindly refund the money I paid for the tickets.
Please find attached copies of the tickets I purchased from AFC booth in Villagio Mall on 16 November 2011
Anyone with any comments should go to Al Jazeera and post in comments section. The media already know the bad feeling on this but as ever and as seen in todays Gulf Times they dont investigate they just accept any load of rubbish that is given to them at a press conference and report this rather than do what their title is and actually do some journalism and ask some real questions.
I am hoping at leat Al Jazeera may be interested in doing some proper journalistic works as you can forget about any of the newspapers here.
My first sporting event in Qatar was the ExxonMobil final. And I swore, never again. Not even for Federer. From what I've been reading about last night, it was the same disastern as the tennis final, just XL-sized. I had a valid centre court ticket, AND I watched the match, or TRIED to watch the match, from the steps. Craning neck, hemmed in by a dozen shoving elbows, big unyielding shoulders, and smelly armpits (yes, those too).
Never again,
I kind of like the way Fox Sports, Australia summed up their review of the organisation yesterday : 'Qatar is a young country and behaves like a self-conscious teenager. Desperate to look good and have everyone talking about them. The organisers were worried how empty seats would look at the final so they gave tickets away. The problem was those tickets were already sold and when their real owners turned up all hell broke loose. Several Australian fans fell victim.
This shambles played out with a crowd of 35,000. Imagine in 11 years time when they’re trying to accommodate crowds of twice that size.
Their World Cup bid tag was "expect the amazing". We might have seen it last night.'
its NEVER the fault of the organisers or Qataris....
Unfortunately, its that age old problem of accountability.... no one wants to take responsibility, so the public will be blamed for not having ears and listening...
the article stated the gates were closed early for heavy security reasons (VIP or an heir to the throne was inside).
I don't quite agree with their reasoning.Moreover, it's very inappropriate of them to say that "they were happy of what they did". And to add insult to injury, they were blaming the people for not coming early despite their "encouragement". Tsk. What a bummer!
TB, that certainly is possible...and they most probably gave instructions...which most probably were not followed....but they should be blamed anyway....;)
wake up Qatar your still sleeping!!!!!!. when they got 2022 bid every one (Qatar) wakeup form sleep & enjoy and gone to roads .. but after 2 days Qatar again gone to sleeping mode.
i think in 2021 may they will wake up and say 2022 Qatar world cup!!!!!!
i donOt know how they develop this roads here!!! there is no proper roads, fly overs ex: Ramada to Toyota there is 4-5 signal !!!!!!!
In the time of WC 2022 all Gulf nationals form all middle east will be stay 1 month in Qatar so land cushier run in Qatar road frm UAE. SAUDI, KUWAIT,OMAN,BHARIN ETC......JUST IMAGINE HOW THIS PEOPLE WILL CONTROL THE ARAB CROWD..JUST FORGET THE FOOTBALL FANS FROM OTHER PART OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!
Back at home, we used to have this horrible stampede over a variety show and there were a lot of casualties. God forbid this would happen on WC 2022 or in any event for that matter. I know it's a fallacy to say that if A=B, B=C, then A=C. A doesn't necessarily have to be equal to C, where A=WC 2022, B=AFC 2011 and C=disaster.
If A would learn the mistakes of B, then hopefully, A will not turn out to be C.
I apologise as I have have posted this elsewhere On QL threads but will continue to add to any new thread in case the authorities actualaly take any notice of the fans comments.
This is not just an access issuue but a major saftey issue. Lets close the entrance gates to the main stadium 45 mins before the game starts . Lets not worry about the men, women , children who will be crushed against the gates as more and more people start coming in and want access.
This is the main issue that should be addressed immediatley by the organisers. Have they no idea of what has happened in past soccer stadium "disasters" . Generally they have been caused by closing gates and then fans crushing entrances leading to injuries or even worse.
In this case they were lucky - The crowd was generally very good natured but it would have taken one incident or one panic event to cause mayhem.
And if you are wondering why I feel so strongly about this , I was at the front of the entrance gates with my two young children just as they closed it. They were frightened and I was frightened for them as the pressure of the crowds built up behind us. Eventually I had to lift them over a crash barrier to get them some space . Then picked them both up and barged my way out through teh crowd into open space and safety.
How many practice/rehearsal evets have they had already? The Asian Games, the heir Apparent Cup, the Emir cup...still the same. Do you need rocket science to get this math right - No: of seats = No: of tickets sold.
BluVander...Yes, that was the main reason. The organizors underestimated the expected crowd for an Asia Cup Final (Of Course, they were idiots) & brought in the free seat fillers before time. One more thing to share...we were politely been asked by the security guy/ticket checker to leave our tickets with him and we were stupid enough to do so :(
After getting to our seats, we recieved some fans holding "our" tickets and they asked us to give them the seats *Smack* *Smack* Smack*.
Anyways, it was sorted out soon but that was a lesson learnt not to be repeated again.
This people don't know proper organisation...........Big Zero to organize such a tournament & others managing more than dis crowed very easy like...Europens club mathes even VVIP is there.....
It was my first time to go for any football match (not for the love of game, but environment :P). Before even planning to go there, I took all the possible scenarios into account & got there (alongwith 25 friends & families) at around 3 PM. Hence, No Problem.
Now, I am not saying there wasn't any problem at all. But, looking into the past tournaments/matches being organized here, we should have taken care of it well in advance... NO? Why would one expect them to organize a match in a perfect way if they have repeatedly failed to do so in the past & refused to learn from their mistakes?
We can't change the attitude & the organizing skills here...but atleast we can adjust ourselves to avail such opportunities.
My sympathies are with all those genuine football fans who couldn't make it into the stadium despite holding valid tickets...& would advise them to be more pro-active in future to avoid such disappointment.
BluVander I realise you were speculating, I commented because your speculation was ludicrous. Of course there were going to be VVVVVVVVVIP's at the final, I think you could count that as a given.
We can all speculate as much as we like. But I doubt if we will ever learn the truth. I give most credibility to the seat filler theory, but I doubt that we will ever get to the real story. However I am pleased to see that even the Gulf Times is reporting on this, even popping it onto the front page. No mention of riot police or dogs of course.
I don't mind that they gave the labourers or even students free entrance. But please do that.....AFTER they make sure VALID ticket holders have been seated in their respective seats. I mean what are seat numbers for, why go through the motion of asking where we would like our seats when they are not going to follow through on it.
I agree with chocoholic. The explanation given in that link seems more reasonable than any other comments on this issue. Due to lack of viewers even in the semi-finals the authorities might have brought in seat fillers from different parts of Qatar and did not expect that much people (who secured tickets) will turn out for the final.
Well, we were told to "expect amazing" however not quite what we had in mind.
I really hope that CNN or BBC World pick this one up and get the organisers to consider the logistics of this. This was only a drop in the ocean to what is going to happen in a few years time and Qatar needs to be prepared. Fingers crossed this should give them a boot up the behind to become used to what international audiences will be expecting as a minimum.
I think this is a childish failure on part of the organizers. They pressed the panic button much earlier than required. Being overly cautious, they wanted to fill the stadium before time and relax even if it meant denial of valid ticket holders of their rights. I think learning to sustain prolonged pressure is what needs to be practiced for organizing any event of this scale.
Yes, i am just speculating and i was wondering what other people think was the reason behind the ban since authorities have not given any official statement yet.
From the posted link the author still seems to be hopeful that come WC things will change for good....I would disagree with that... it may change but not for good, for sure....
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Below is the correspondence between AFC & I:
*******************************************************
From: Rien
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 13:05 AM
To: tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa
Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Sir / Madam,
Thank you for your reply.
I appreciate AFC/QLOC joint apology to the fans and the offer to refund money.
However, kindly note that the gates were closed much earlier than 18.05.
My wife and sons reached the stadium at 17.15 and I reached the stadium at 17.45 by then tall barricades were already in place to stop fans from entering the stadium. Although I agree that the gates were closed due to "security reason" are partly correct, the real reason for security concern is due to the free entrance allowed to thousands of people to fill the stadium, thus resulting in thousands of paid fans being turned away.
So, the statement that gates are closed at 18.05 is incorrect.
Therefore, an amendment to your press release, to reflect the actual cause of "security concern" as well as accurate time of the gates closure, would be much apprecited.
Thanks & regards
Rien
-------------------------------------------------
From: AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011Tickets [mailto:Tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 10:15 AM
To: Rien
Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Asian Cup Spectator,
In continuation to joint AFC/QLOC Daily Media Briefing held on 30 January 2011 at Main Media Centre, the QLOC would like once again to offer our apology for the fans that were not able to enter the Final Match, despite the fact that they had valid ticketing in their hands, due to the security concern which led to the closing of gates at 18:05.
Once again, we apologize to these fans, and have decided in conjunction with the AFC to refund all ticket-holders who have been denied access to the venue due to Security Closure of Gates.
Please see the detailed process at tickets.afcasiancup.com for applying for refunds and – as always – please do not hesitate to contact the QLOC at tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa for any further inquiries you may have.
Kindly be informed that the submission of the Refund Application Form will be from the 3rd-28th of February 2011.
Regards,
The Ticketing Department
Local Organizing Committee
AFC Asian Cup - Qatar 2011 TM
E tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa
W www.afcasiancup.com
----------------------------------------------------
From: Rien
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:53 AM
To: AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011Tickets
Subject: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final
Dear Sir / Madam,
It is with disappointment I write to you about the shameful behavior and treatment I met with (along with at least 10000 other fans) at Khalifa Stadium, Doha-Qatar for yesterday’s Australia vs Japan AFC final match.
Despite having valid, four (4), tickets which I booked over two months ago, my family & I could not enter the stadium.
When we reached the stadium at 5.15pm, we were told by policemen that we cannot go in as the stadium is full.
We waited till 7.15pm to get into the stadium, only to disappointed and pushed away by baton wielding policemen … so we returned home extremely disappointed.
This is disgraceful and shameful treatment of fans by a reputed football association.
In view of the above I request AFC to kindly refund the money I paid for the tickets.
Please find attached copies of the tickets I purchased from AFC booth in Villagio Mall on 16 November 2011
Regards
Rien
Anyone with any comments should go to Al Jazeera and post in comments section. The media already know the bad feeling on this but as ever and as seen in todays Gulf Times they dont investigate they just accept any load of rubbish that is given to them at a press conference and report this rather than do what their title is and actually do some journalism and ask some real questions.
I am hoping at leat Al Jazeera may be interested in doing some proper journalistic works as you can forget about any of the newspapers here.
http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/football/2011/01/2011130111938713306.html#
it was a Family day..
QATAR is just for OIL & GAS, funny they wanna stick around with sports, such like football. . . do camels play football?
Much like the real teenagers (and much older adolescents) in this country, non? :)
When will Qatar grow up? We are waiting.
nice analogy! lol
Qatar : Teenager
*two thumbs up*
My first sporting event in Qatar was the ExxonMobil final. And I swore, never again. Not even for Federer. From what I've been reading about last night, it was the same disastern as the tennis final, just XL-sized. I had a valid centre court ticket, AND I watched the match, or TRIED to watch the match, from the steps. Craning neck, hemmed in by a dozen shoving elbows, big unyielding shoulders, and smelly armpits (yes, those too).
Never again,
I kind of like the way Fox Sports, Australia summed up their review of the organisation yesterday : 'Qatar is a young country and behaves like a self-conscious teenager. Desperate to look good and have everyone talking about them. The organisers were worried how empty seats would look at the final so they gave tickets away. The problem was those tickets were already sold and when their real owners turned up all hell broke loose. Several Australian fans fell victim.
This shambles played out with a crowd of 35,000. Imagine in 11 years time when they’re trying to accommodate crowds of twice that size.
Their World Cup bid tag was "expect the amazing". We might have seen it last night.'
Dude this is the middle east. They have VIP's every where. Even effing VIP toilets in the mall. This is no reason to shut out ppl with valid tickets.
You can say that again, Xena!
its NEVER the fault of the organisers or Qataris....
Unfortunately, its that age old problem of accountability.... no one wants to take responsibility, so the public will be blamed for not having ears and listening...
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110130/ten-uk-soccer-asian-final-tickets-eaebf69.html
the article stated the gates were closed early for heavy security reasons (VIP or an heir to the throne was inside).
I don't quite agree with their reasoning.Moreover, it's very inappropriate of them to say that "they were happy of what they did". And to add insult to injury, they were blaming the people for not coming early despite their "encouragement". Tsk. What a bummer!
TB, that certainly is possible...and they most probably gave instructions...which most probably were not followed....but they should be blamed anyway....;)
u got a point hehe.. a
I hope someone loses their job over this. I wonder if any consultants were brought in from experienced football tournament organisations.
Ponder??? Lol Blatter doesn't give a damn what happens in 2022.. He will be retired or dead, maybe retired and dead.. 2022 is not his problem..
wish that's true, so he could ponder on what other worse thing that could happen for 2022 WC given last night's scenario.
And Platini was sitting alongside Blatter.. Poor guy forgot which continent he is is supposed to be in :-P
wake up Qatar your still sleeping!!!!!!. when they got 2022 bid every one (Qatar) wakeup form sleep & enjoy and gone to roads .. but after 2 days Qatar again gone to sleeping mode.
i think in 2021 may they will wake up and say 2022 Qatar world cup!!!!!!
i donOt know how they develop this roads here!!! there is no proper roads, fly overs ex: Ramada to Toyota there is 4-5 signal !!!!!!!
In the time of WC 2022 all Gulf nationals form all middle east will be stay 1 month in Qatar so land cushier run in Qatar road frm UAE. SAUDI, KUWAIT,OMAN,BHARIN ETC......JUST IMAGINE HOW THIS PEOPLE WILL CONTROL THE ARAB CROWD..JUST FORGET THE FOOTBALL FANS FROM OTHER PART OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!
And Sepp Blatter was there!!!!!! :D
Back at home, we used to have this horrible stampede over a variety show and there were a lot of casualties. God forbid this would happen on WC 2022 or in any event for that matter. I know it's a fallacy to say that if A=B, B=C, then A=C. A doesn't necessarily have to be equal to C, where A=WC 2022, B=AFC 2011 and C=disaster.
If A would learn the mistakes of B, then hopefully, A will not turn out to be C.
Let's hope for the best.
I apologise as I have have posted this elsewhere On QL threads but will continue to add to any new thread in case the authorities actualaly take any notice of the fans comments.
This is not just an access issuue but a major saftey issue. Lets close the entrance gates to the main stadium 45 mins before the game starts . Lets not worry about the men, women , children who will be crushed against the gates as more and more people start coming in and want access.
This is the main issue that should be addressed immediatley by the organisers. Have they no idea of what has happened in past soccer stadium "disasters" . Generally they have been caused by closing gates and then fans crushing entrances leading to injuries or even worse.
In this case they were lucky - The crowd was generally very good natured but it would have taken one incident or one panic event to cause mayhem.
And if you are wondering why I feel so strongly about this , I was at the front of the entrance gates with my two young children just as they closed it. They were frightened and I was frightened for them as the pressure of the crowds built up behind us. Eventually I had to lift them over a crash barrier to get them some space . Then picked them both up and barged my way out through teh crowd into open space and safety.
stupidity has no limits..
and lessons learned from everyone involved...
but i read from the previous post this was not the first time it happened..
emiri cup was the first.. i hope WC 2022 is not the third, coz im sure if it is, then it's gonna be the end of Qatar's hosting career!
How many practice/rehearsal evets have they had already? The Asian Games, the heir Apparent Cup, the Emir cup...still the same. Do you need rocket science to get this math right - No: of seats = No: of tickets sold.
BluVander...Yes, that was the main reason. The organizors underestimated the expected crowd for an Asia Cup Final (Of Course, they were idiots) & brought in the free seat fillers before time. One more thing to share...we were politely been asked by the security guy/ticket checker to leave our tickets with him and we were stupid enough to do so :(
After getting to our seats, we recieved some fans holding "our" tickets and they asked us to give them the seats *Smack* *Smack* Smack*.
Anyways, it was sorted out soon but that was a lesson learnt not to be repeated again.
This people don't know proper organisation...........Big Zero to organize such a tournament & others managing more than dis crowed very easy like...Europens club mathes even VVIP is there.....
after all these comments, did we arrive to a conclusion as to why last night's catastrophe happened?
because of the disorganized committee who decided to bring in seat fillers sooner than what the REAL seat owners should've taken?
They should have let all you freeloaders in AFTER the kick-off, not before. Idiots.
i'm VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIP, because i bought a ticket... and i was stuck outside
these are my videos from what happened at the AFC final:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-546742
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-546671
And if the general population got in to the Get There Earlier mode, the how earlier would 'earlier' be?
Khattak got it right.
Sorry... Double Post :(
for the VIPs? Nah!
It's Qatar! it's how they handle things, and they suck at it
It was my first time to go for any football match (not for the love of game, but environment :P). Before even planning to go there, I took all the possible scenarios into account & got there (alongwith 25 friends & families) at around 3 PM. Hence, No Problem.
Now, I am not saying there wasn't any problem at all. But, looking into the past tournaments/matches being organized here, we should have taken care of it well in advance... NO? Why would one expect them to organize a match in a perfect way if they have repeatedly failed to do so in the past & refused to learn from their mistakes?
We can't change the attitude & the organizing skills here...but atleast we can adjust ourselves to avail such opportunities.
My sympathies are with all those genuine football fans who couldn't make it into the stadium despite holding valid tickets...& would advise them to be more pro-active in future to avoid such disappointment.
yeah this happen again on the 2022. im afraid to buy ticket anymore because they are also selling 50% more tickets that the capacity of the stadium.
please send Msg for the same on the following link to Asian Football Confederation.
http://www.the-afc.com/en/inside-afc/contact-afc
We all need to highlight the same to Asian Football Confederation.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-546503
BluVander I realise you were speculating, I commented because your speculation was ludicrous. Of course there were going to be VVVVVVVVVIP's at the final, I think you could count that as a given.
We can all speculate as much as we like. But I doubt if we will ever learn the truth. I give most credibility to the seat filler theory, but I doubt that we will ever get to the real story. However I am pleased to see that even the Gulf Times is reporting on this, even popping it onto the front page. No mention of riot police or dogs of course.
I don't mind that they gave the labourers or even students free entrance. But please do that.....AFTER they make sure VALID ticket holders have been seated in their respective seats. I mean what are seat numbers for, why go through the motion of asking where we would like our seats when they are not going to follow through on it.
shame on qatar...also do the same on world cup
I think it's cos they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!
I had a corporate ticket as well as a normal ticket but still was denied.
I agree with chocoholic. The explanation given in that link seems more reasonable than any other comments on this issue. Due to lack of viewers even in the semi-finals the authorities might have brought in seat fillers from different parts of Qatar and did not expect that much people (who secured tickets) will turn out for the final.
I think the reason for #6 is that most of the fans who bought VIP tickets were stuck outside and were not granted access
Well, we were told to "expect amazing" however not quite what we had in mind.
I really hope that CNN or BBC World pick this one up and get the organisers to consider the logistics of this. This was only a drop in the ocean to what is going to happen in a few years time and Qatar needs to be prepared. Fingers crossed this should give them a boot up the behind to become used to what international audiences will be expecting as a minimum.
Few thinks i noted.
1- Even though all the tickets got seat number,the moment gate opened people start sitting here n there..like first come first server
2- Organizers didn't expect this much crowd hence they invited plenty of labor class people to fill the seat
3- 60% of the stadium was crowded with labor class..i ask one of the guy..he didn't even have a ticket
4- When i enter the stadium around 5:30, it was almost like free no one even bother to check my ticket..:) waisted my money..
5- No one was watching the game...they were all enjoying the environment..Many of them didn't even know whos playing :)
6- Half of VIP seats were vacant ... but tickets were sold out...how come?
they have to change the attitude "YA ALLAH KHALAS"
ONLY GOOD THINK HAPPENED WAS CLOSING CEREMONY AND THE FIREWORKS
I think this is a childish failure on part of the organizers. They pressed the panic button much earlier than required. Being overly cautious, they wanted to fill the stadium before time and relax even if it meant denial of valid ticket holders of their rights. I think learning to sustain prolonged pressure is what needs to be practiced for organizing any event of this scale.
this is QATAR..
Yes, i am just speculating and i was wondering what other people think was the reason behind the ban since authorities have not given any official statement yet.
They have been working so hard to put Qatar on the map but "little things" such as this makes all their hard work vanish into thin air.
From the posted link the author still seems to be hopeful that come WC things will change for good....I would disagree with that... it may change but not for good, for sure....
Sorry, this expanation is more believable-
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1593627
VVVVVIP's my Ar$e There is no more important VVVVVIP than a true Football fan with a valid Ticket.
Nah...as usual they just failed to organise the event properly... nothing new....very much as expected...
I think you are guessing, and wrong at that.
What do you think guys?