Michael Burgess: NZ Herald Senior Sports Journalist on the security measures, ticket prices ahead of the FIFA World Cup
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What insights does Michael Burgess provide about the World Cup experience?
We are on the eve of the FIFA World Cup, the biggest sporting event on the planet. It's kicking off tomorrow, 7am our time. It's between the games between Mexico and South Africa. Michael Burgess, the Herald's senior sports journalist, is on the ground in San Diego. Morning, Michael.
Good morning, Heather. Good morning. Yes.
You're getting into a match, are you?
I'm actually at the University of... Yeah, I'll be going to the New Zealand match. It's chaos here at the moment. I'm actually at the University of San Diego. The All Whites have just finished a training session here, incredible facilities, and they've had an open training day. They were attracted about, I don't know, probably 2,000 people, and they're having an autograph session. Happy to confirm that the Tim Payne mania is continuing. There's people around me saying, oh, that's Tim Payne. Gee, that's Payne, you know, which is amazing for a guy that was completely unknown just a couple of weeks ago.
Oh, that's remarkable. I've heard the security is also nutty. Is that true?
It is, Heather. I mean, I haven't seen anything like it before, like, I was just thinking, I was in Beijing at the Olympics in 2008, and we know the Chinese love their security. I was in Russia in 2018 when you got Putin, one of the world's great tyrants, I guess, and the Russians are pretty firm on things. But I've never seen anything like it here. I don't know why, but the security is just way over the top. I think it's a combination of FIFA's pretty paranoid, and then you've got, you know, the Trump administration is super paranoid. Even just getting into this training session today was an incredible ordeal. We were at the wrong entrance. We had to bring... uh dogs to check our stuff and i'm watching fans try to come in and they're being made to um they couldn't bring in posters they couldn't bring in a water bottle because they had a label of a competing brand they had to rip the water bottle off so yeah it's just it's just way over the top and i think that's been reflected in the other stories you've seen about um teams and officials trying to arrive in the country you know they've just they've just taken it way too far
Do you think it's killing the fun of this event with the prices and the security and the you're only allowed to take one water bottle in and any other water bottle is going to basically cost you your mortgage? Is it just not becoming fun anymore?
It has hampered. It's definitely hampered that. I mean, it's definitely not the spirit that you normally hope at a World Cup. And what they've done, unfortunately, is priced out the casual fan. You know, talking to fans here into soccer, as they say. But they're telling me, you know, I'm not going to pay $2,000 to go to a game, which is what some of the tickets are, because I'll be working three months to pay that off. So that's the sad part. They have done that. Look. It's still going to be a great tournament. The stadiums are going to be pretty full. It's going to look great on television. It's the populations.
What are the key security measures for the FIFA World Cup?
You've got the Latino population here going nuts. So it's still going to be great. But I just feel it could have been so much better. And I feel what FIFA's done and what the US are doing has just taken the heart and soul out of what you say. You're correct. It's normally such a celebration of sport and football and the international community.
Michael, look after yourself. I hope that game goes ahead on Tuesday. That's Michael Burgess, the Herald's senior sports journalist. The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has just held a press conference. He's been asked about that chap from Africa being blocked, the referee from Africa not being able to get in. He says, We don't control everything. Sometimes it's good to chill, relax. We are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces. We are a sports organisation. They will try, though, by the sounds of things.
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