Ticket-holders locked out of Khalifa Stadium before Australia face Japan in Asian Cup final in Qatar.

Qatar Local Organising Committee spokesman Jassim Al-Rumaihi has defended the organisation of Saturday’s Asian Cup final.

Around 3,000 people were locked out of the ground – at least 700 of whom were confirmed to have valid tickets for the game between Japan and Australia – amid reports of heavy-handed security by riot police that included the confiscating of fans’ cameras and confrontational behaviour towards a crowd that included families with children.

Al-Rumaihi denied suggestions that people without tickets had been granted entry earlier in the afternoon thus contributing to a situation that saw fans – some of whom had travelled from as far as Japan and Australia – unable to watch the game despite holding valid tickets.

He did concede the security situation needs to be reviewed but claimed gates were kept open until after the 6pm kick-off to alleviate the problem even though they were supposed to shut earlier due to security associated with the arrival of the Crown Prince of Qatar, insisting people turning up late for the game and without tickets were to blame, a situation with serious implications for the 2022 World Cup.

“In general, I’m very happy with what they have done. Some issues have been raised that we have to consider,” said Al-Rumaihi.

“We will sit down with the security people – we have big events coming, not just the World Cup. In general, yes, there are some issues here, we have to sit down with them and consider in the future that they have to improve themselves because we have a lot of events coming here.

“For me, all the time we told the spectators to come earlier. Yesterday, we were supposed to close the gate because of security reasons around 5.30pm, we continued to open the gate until around 6.05pm. People were coming with and without tickets, most of them without tickets, a couple of thousand, which was causing a problem.

“Some of them were unhappy about not attending the match even though they held tickets but due to the security and protection of the spectators, we decided to not allow them in.

“Some of them went to the media centre, complaining, but everybody should know this is a tournament and it has a security procedure especially for the opening and the closing ceremony, so people should consider this.

“We were hoping that we didn’t have something like this happen but it happened. You can’t please everybody.”

Al-Rumaihi insisted QLOC had done everything possible to try and avert the situation having outlined that ultimately, they had no control over security.

“There was a big crowd outside and most of them did not have tickets,” he added.

“We tried to make the people understand ‘please take it easy, we will try to solve the problems, if there is available seats, we will try to get you in’. The tickets have been issued for six months, people are waiting until the last minute and they want to come to the stadium.

“We always say go back, buy your ticket, try to come earlier and they still come the same way.

“Unfortunately some of them are Qataris and some are non-Qataris, they are coming from abroad and they want to go to the final. The final is very important for everybody.

“They should plan this earlier so that they come to the stadium with no hassle. I wish from my heart this didn’t happen but we can’t sell tickets more than the capacity of the stadium.

“We were urging everybody to come earlier but people still continued to come late. Most of the people that came had no tickets.”

Last night’s events now raise questions over Qatar’s ability to host the 2022 World Cup given the number of fans involved will be far greater than the 37,000 that turned up at Khalifa Stadium.

Al-Rumaihi also refuted claims spectators were not allowed to leave until up to an hour after the game, creating the possibility of serious injury due to congestion around the gates.

“Some of the people left the stadium before the trophy presentation was finished,” he said.

“The gates were open. It was not an issue leaving the stadiums.”

He also stressed the QLOC would look at refunding ticket-holders who were unable to watch the final that Japan won 1-0.

“We will consider that,” he said.

“People can go to our website and approach us regarding this. We will discuss this issue with the AFC and come back to them when we have an answer.”

Source: espnstar.com

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