Stadium Management has instituted new measures to curb chaos in future Soweto derbies after the chaos that were witnessed at the FNB Stadium on February 1 when Orlando Pirates hosted Kaizer Chiefs.
In the match, which Pirates won through Patrick Maswanganyi’s last-minute penalty, there were more than the required number of fans with Stadium Management Chief Executive Officer Bertie Grobbelaar confirming that there were over 100,000 supporters inside the match venue that has a capacity of 87,000.
Grobbelaar says this was after some fans found their way into the match venue using fake tickets while others jumped over fences and some bribed security personnel to get in, leading to a chaotic scene that has necessitated changes ahead of the next derby scheduled for May 3.
FNB Stadium overflowed with fans
“There’s been an increase in the number of fraudulent tickets and access control we’ve had at the venues, specifically with sold-out capacity fixtures, with the two clubs we’ve explored options over the last season and a half to enhance the accessibility of tickets, to make it easier to purchase tickets, to get in the venue and to curtail fake tickets,” said Grobbelaar.
“The plan was to implement a new ticketing system at the start of the 2025/26 season but unfortunately after the derby in February, it became evident that we need to accelerate the process, in our debriefing session with the Venue Operating Centre (VOC) and the SPC committee, PSL and other stakeholders, we identified two issues; fraudulent tickets, scanning issues at entry points and human error and human mollified by scanning staff and security staff.
“In some instances, it’s these people working together, taking bribes to let people in. At the Derby of a capacity of 87,000, we had in excess of 100,000 people in the venue – how do we know that? We installed a secondary counting system at the turnstiles.”
What is the new ticketing process?
Going forward, OpenTickets will take over with new ticketing purchase options now available to fans, allowing supporters to buy tickets through bank apps and WhatsApp as an additional offering after 46,000 tickets of the February 1 match were bought at outlets.
“There’s new ways now to install security features on these new tickets, with the Derby at 87,000 at the gates, at the soft checks, it’s impossible to do so with the till slip tickets – so that box couldn’t be ticked,” Grobbelaar further said.
“We have discontinued the till slip tickets but it leaves us with 46,000 people without access to tickets, so in discussions we managed to secure 1,700 outlets around the country.”
Both clubs are in agreement with the new measures as they believe it will bring sanity on derby day after the ugly scenes witnessed last time when fans outnumbered security and entered restricted places such as the media zone.
