World Cup ticket buyers discovering seats aren’t together

Fans planning to attend the Women’s World Cup in France are finding out that the seats they bought might not be together.

Tickets were made available to print Monday and ticket holders learned that their seats were sometimes split up in separate rows and even sections — even families with young children were separated.

Seamus Campbell, who lives in Portland, Oregon, bought five tickets for the semifinals and finals in Lyon. Three seats are in a single row, but with a random individual seat breaking up the group, while another seat is two rows back and the last is in a row behind that.

Campbell also purchased three tickets for matches in Paris — two are together and the other is separate.

“It’s just astonishing that they didn’t find a way to put blocks of tickets together. And I appreciate that there are a lot of tickets, and they’re selling them all at once, but I just can’t fathom how you would end up — and I’m a software developer — I don’t know how you would build a system that said, ‘We have three seats that are almost together but we’re gonna put one single seat in between those three.’”

The tournament starts June 7 and runs through July 7.

FIFA responded on the verified Women’s World Cup Twitter account, posting: “Dear fans. We have noted some of your comments, re: your tickets. When you placed your order, a message indicating not all seats would be located next to each other did appear, before confirmation of your purchase. Unfortunately we will not be able to modify your order.”

An additional post said: “However, an exception could be made for parents whose seats are not next to the seats of their underage children (18 years old and younger).” The post included the email address for the event’s local organizing committee and a phone number for customer service.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

It’s customary for most sporting events to allow groups of ticket buyers to choose seats that are together. There was a limit on the number of World Cup tickets that could be purchased by a single buyer.

The situation could cause problems in the stadiums before games, when fans may try to swap seats to sit next to friends or family members. Separated families might become an issue if a security concern should arise.

Jessica Russell, who is from Utah, said she bought two tickets as a package for the semifinals and final in Lyon. She said she was disappointed to see the seats are separated.

“It would be nice to sit with who you bought the tickets with,” she said. “We’ll try to see if people will switch with people around us. But if not, we’ll just deal with it.”