Football: Brussels talks about tickets

John Lichfield
Thursday 05 March 1998 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

THE French organisers of the World Cup will defend the small allocation of tickets to foreign fans as a "security measure" in a crucial meeting in Brussels today in which Jacques Lambert, the director general of the organising committee, will meet the EU Commissioner responsible for free and fair competition, Karel van Miert.

The European Commission has warned that the system used for allocating tickets, reserving 60 per cent for people with French addresses and bank accounts, may break EU free trade laws. But Mr Lambert plans to argue that this method is essential to segregate fans.

If the EU insists on its interpretation of European law, the organising committee will insist that it is still too late to change allocations for the group matches.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in