A line of distressed fans snaked outside the main ticketing
help desk in Doha, with many reporting that their tickets had abruptly
disappeared from their phones and could not be retrieved— a glitch that caused
hundreds to miss the start of England’s match against Iran on Monday.
In front of a sign marked “Ticket Resolution Point” at a
convention center in central Doha, fans swapped stories of ticket troubles and
showed volunteers error messages on their mobile apps. One security guard,
Mahammad Sajid, said it had been difficult to control some angry fans when the
crowds peaked earlier in the morning.
Marciel Hernandez, a 64-year-old soccer fan from Mexico
City, was waiting in line, seething in his sombrero. He said the app problems
forced him to miss the first 20 minutes of the England-Iran game the day
before.
“I’ve been to six World Cups and I’ve never had any kinds of
problems like this,” he said, adding that two of his tickets had failed to show
up on his mobile app. “These are important matches I could miss. I spend my
whole life savings on the World Cup so when things don’t go well, it’s very frustrating.”
Behind him in line, Mohamed Tom, a mechanical engineer from
Khartoum, Sudan, said he was “very worried” that the volunteers wouldn’t be
able to resolve his problems before his next match in a few hours. “Everyone is
having difficulties,” he said.
Mohamed Afran, a 32-year-old fan from Algeria, said it was
his fifth time coming to the convention center to wait in line. The last four
times, he said, helpless volunteers had asked him to return the next day.
“This is not the best place to be during the World Cup,” he
said, dripping with sweat under the sun. -AP