This rant - sponsored by MasterCard Dec 13 2005

This really gets on my nerves - the third sales phase for FIFA World Cup 2006 tickets went live today, my interest peaked by Fridays draw for the group stages. It seems like a fair way to distribute tickets - between now and 15 January 2006, you can sign up and ‘order’ which tickets you want. Since demand will outweigh availability, at the end of January, a lottery will take place to decide who gets tickets. So far so good. However, besides the crazy amount of detail you need to make a ticket application (full details of each person that you are buying tickets for, including their passport ID’s - why not ask for this only after you’ve been selected for tickets after January’s lottery?), the thing that pisses me off most is the payment options. To make a payment by credit card, it appears you can only use a MasterCard. Why? Because MasterCard are of course the exclusive credit card sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2006. Its a sponsorship world gone mad. The only option left for me is going to be an undoubtedly laborius bank transfer, with alsorts of room for error. And I still can’t help but feel that payment details should be entered in an online control panel that shows after January, for those that were pulled out of the hat. Set a deadline, e-mail the winners, those that don’t plug in their details within a certain timeframe lose the tickets, and some new names are drawn. Keep going til all seats are filled. As it stands - 2006 may or may not involve a holiday to Germany for me.