Goal.com poll reveals 40% of fans ruled out of 2010 FIFA World Cup due to prices

(London – 18th May 2010) Almost 40% of football fans say they have been priced out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup due to spiraling costs ahead of the finals in South Africa.

In a poll conducted by Goal.com – the world’s largest new media football community – 39.74% of the 12,840 fans that took part said that the overall cost of the trip, including flights, tickets and living expenses, ruled them out of the world’s most popular sporting event. A further 15.31% of those questioned across 19 editions of Goal.com said that concerns about security made them opt against attending, particularly in Japan and Korea - where 48.23% and 38.18% of fans respectively cited the issue as the reason for them not attending - whilst just 13.64% of users said that they will travel to South Africa when the tournament begins in June. There have been fears that a combination of high ticket prices, expensive travel and inflated accommodation and living costs would result in thousands of unsold tickets, and as recently as the beginning of May official organisers acknowledged that 270,000 of a final batch of tickets – 10% of the overall amount - remained unsold. Package trips that include flights, accommodation, one match ticket and coach transfers to and from the stadium start at around £1000, available from a number of companies. Return flights from Europe average at around £550 per person, ensuring that trips would prove costly even if ticket prices for the matches themselves for the 2010 FIFA World Cup are among the lowest in history. Goal.com Chief Content Officer Michael Simpson said: “These poll results are illustrative of many of the concerns that our users have expressed in recent months, namely the cost of supporting their team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “It is a shame that such a celebration of football cannot be opened up to all.” Ends NOTES TO EDITORS Goal.com Worldwide Poll – May 2010: Goal.com poll conducted across editions Arab world, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, International, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK and USA editions. A total of 12,840 took part in the online poll between 3rd May 2010 and 7th May 2010. About Goal.com: Goal.com was founder in 2004 by Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni, and has grown into the largest football website on the planet with 22 editions delivering content in 15 languages. Uniquely, Goal.com uses football writers that live in the locations on which they report to ensure they appreciate the cultural, political, economic, religious, and social differences in each region. For more information, please contact Goal.com PR Director Will Wood on will.wood@goal.com / +44 (0) 161 408 8221.

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