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Cape Town - FIFA's ticketing fiasco hit new lows on Monday morning when hundreds of Capetonians were turned away at the ticketing centre.

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World football's governing body had announced via a press release that 15 000 partially obscured tickets would be made available across the country at R140 each, but fans who turned up as early as 24 hours before to secure their place in the queue were left disappointed once again to hear this was not the case.

In fact, only three matches were available to fans at the ticketing centre at The Spearhead in Cape Town. Paul Herman, who pitched up at 08:30 on Sunday morning with just a book and a chair to keep himself company, was first in the queue.

However, at the sales window he was told that only corporate hospitality tickets were available, and only for Portugal v Korea, Cameroon v Netherlands and the Quarter-Final, with prices ranging from R1 400 to R2 500.

Only 10 people were let into the building at a time, while hundreds more people who queued in the cold outside were not made aware of the situation until 09:30. Dozens had also slept overnight to secure their place in the line.

Unsurprisingly, tensions rose and a few heated skirmishes were witnessed at the entrance to The Spearhead, where several policemen were called into action to prevent all-out chaos.

FIFA's lack of communication and general neglect of the South African public can now not get any worse, with hundreds of Capetonians and thousands more across the country left bitter and resentful over what has been a downright catastrophe of a ticketing process from day one.