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Digital ticketing move to boost Ghana FA’s struggling sales

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has confirmed plans to introduce digital ticketing for domestic league and international fixtures in a bid to boost sales.

Jamil Maraby, the GFA’s marketing manager, suggested that fans’ concerns about catching Covid-19 from handling physical tickets had contributed towards poor ticket sales since the start of the pandemic.

Maraby said: “We want to sell tickets without necessarily having them printed. It can be from your phone, from the SD card and mobile money purchase, and then you show the barcode when you get to the stadium, and you enter.”

The GFA is currently working with unnamed partners to introduce the technology.

Spectators will need to be educated about the benefits of digital ticketing, whilst being provided with a reliable service, to allay any fears about data security and privacy, Maraby said. 

He added that digital ticketing would help to minimise fraud and protect fans against ticket scalpers outside stadiums. 

Additionally, it is hoped that such a move will lead to better crowd control at fixtures, with fans often gathering in large numbers outside a stadium’s turnstiles for big games. 

In June, the GFA blocked ticket sales at Accra Sports Stadium for the highly anticipated clash between Ghana Premier League champion Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko SC, with different outlets offering the tickets away from the venue in a bid to avoid congestion at the venue.

A number of clubs around the world have turned to digital ticketing following the Covid-19 pandemic, including Liverpool FC in the English Premier League and Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga 2 in Germany. 

Image: Jannik Skorna on Unsplash