Bending FIFA rules about NOT reprinting a worldcup ticket

The FIFA and its regulations is an example of an organization with a very closed, intransparant culture. Yesterday, Ward van Riel, found out that his passport and -worse- worldcup ticket for the final Netherlands - Spain were stolen. The embassy is quick with a replacement, but the FIFA refused to solve the issue. Ward had paid 900 USD for the seat, and had followed all the matches of the Netherlands until now, and is then supposed to miss the grand finale? No way.

After three hours of complaining - visiting the FIFA center in the international Joburg airport, being redirected to the FIFA center in Sandton, Joburg - to the frontdesk, the frontdesk manager Daniel Howard, we still had no more result than an ongoing debate about the policy of FIFA that "tickets under no circumstances are reprinted".
Daniel: "the ticket is probably already being resold on the black market."
Me: "Well, please block the old ticket in your system then!"
Daniel: "Ok, yes I can do that for you. Give me a minute".
Daniel then blocked the old ticket.
"Ok, now that you have done that. Why not give out a NEW ticket with a NEW bar code. That's not the same as a reprint of the old ticket in which case you would have two duplicates with the same bar code."
"No, we can't do that. We don't reprint tickets."
"But, that is not reprinting. It is giving out a new ticket for his seat. He bought the right for his seat. Can we talk to your manager?"
But, manager's manager Jess Constant was not in. Also after an hour not back from lunch.
Luckily a cameraman and journalist of a Russian TV network with running camera and open microphone. They were extremely willing to make an item of Ward's dramatic story in the FIFA-land of bureaucracy. Russians are always very critical about Western institutes. A minute later also BBC Radio made its appearance and did a short interview with us, and promised to make an item of it as it is devastating for a fan like Ward to miss the final, for which he had acquired a FIFA-ticket already eight months before, complacent to FIFA rules.
Next, three FIFA officials exited the office area and we jumped upon them, explaining the situation for the tenth time. A catch22-like discussion unfolded in which Ward was actually accused without having done anything wrong that "he may have resold the ticket illegally".
"Prove that! The old ticket is blocked. He followed all the games of the Netherlands until now. He can't help it that his tiket is stolen. The police made a report of it. What more can he do to prove his case?"
One of the three officials felt sorry, and phoned to the responsible manager Gary Scott. A few minutes later Gary exited the office area as well and met Ward in the help desk area. Within 30 more minutes the FIFA regulations were bent in the righteous way, and Ward's ordeal came to a happy end.

How many other FIFA clients have been mishandled by the FIFA helpdesks? How many had to miss matches and even the upcoming finals, because of being robbed of their valuable tickets and consumer rights? It is not a 21st century solution to rob clients of their customer rights. It is a mere technicality, to cancel tickets that are reported stolen, and give out new numbers. If that is PRed well at the same time by FIFA, the black market will collapse at once as people become uncertain if the ticket that they buy second handed is still valid or not.
FIFA can also regulate this second hand business by offering integrity checks for resold tickets, or allow already printed tickets to be resold via the official FIFA website.

Singapore English added to open ICEcat

Today, we added Singapore English to the free Open ICEcat catalog. This in response to requests from a Singaporese etailer and Philips. We had noted before, that Singapore is a very active ecommerce market in Asia, like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.