Can Bafana Bafana fill up FNB Stadium?

Despite returning to Johannesburg after a three-year and six months hiatus‚ Stadium Management CEO Jacques Grobbelaar is confident that Bafana Bafana will at least attract 40 000 fans to the FNB Stadium when they face Burkina Faso in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier on October 7.

With the tragic scenes that left two people dead and several others injured during the sold-out Carling Black Label Champion Cup between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in July still fresh in the mind‚ Grobbelaar urged fans to arrive two hours before kick-off.

“We believe the ticket price is still affordable because the last time we had a Bafana match here against Brazil‚ the ticket price was R80 to R100 and the fans responded very well‚" said Grobbelaar.

"We did also take into consideration that the price is the same as what the fans pay to watch the Soweto derby here.”

Bafana last played at FNB Stadium in March 2014 when they received a 5-0 trashing from Brazil in a friendly match.

Emphasizing on the safety of the fans‚ Grobbelaar promised that they will ensure that security is tight in and around the stadium on the day of the match.

“We are going to activate all our public transport systems in Jo’burg so that fans don’t hassle and pay a lot of money to get to the stadium.

“We want the spectators seated nice and early‚ at least two hours before kick-off.

"We are planning a little bit of entertainment for fans and we will be announcing the details of that next week.”

Unreserved tickets are priced between R100.00 and R120.00 and Grobelaar was asked if the price could not have been lowered a little‚ given Bafana's poor performances in recent weeks.

“We thought about that and spoke to Safa (South African Football Association).

"But we are quite convinced about our final decision and it is something we didn’t take lightly.

"We think we are in line with what the other stadiums are charging for a Bafana game.”

On the issue of counterfeit tickets‚ an issue which caused many problems during the Carling Black Label Champion Cup in July‚ Grobelaar said they were working with all the security services in the country to combat the scourge.

He revealed that the fake ticket phenomenon is quite rife as they discovered in the Chiefs-Pirates matches in July that 425 fake tickets were scanned over 7 000 times.

“The incident of 27th of July is still under police investigation.

"But on our side we know for a fact that organized crime is involved in these fraudulent activities.

"We have come up with a plan to produce new and different tickets in an effort to counter this because we can’t allow fraud to continue in our stadiums.

“So we are changing the tickets‚ the security protocols on the tickets and we are looking at retraining our security staff and using different technology‚” said Grobelaar.

The Bafana match will provide a good platform for Grobelaar and his team to test ‘their new systems’ as the stadium prepares to host another big Soweto derby (league) on October 21.

 - TimesLIVE