Busloads of fans to support Lions in KL

Source

SINGAPORE - As of 5pm yesterday, 267 tickets of the 2,000 allocated for local fans for the second leg of the Asian Zone second round World Cup qualifier between Causeway rivals Singapore and Malaysia were sold.

The first leg will be held at Jalan Besar Stadium on Saturday, while the "away" tie will take place at the 90,000-capacity Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Demand is likely to pick up if the Lions win their home leg, and while it was announced earlier that ticket sales will close at 8pm tomorrow, the Football Association of Singapore's (FAS) deputy director of marketing competitions, Ridzal Saat, said any tickets left over will be released for sale on Sunday, from 10am to 2pm at Jalan Besar's South gate.

And he added: "If there is demand for more tickets, we will put in a request to the Football Association of Malaysia for more."

More than 300 fans have already made bookings for the KL match through travel operators, who have reserved tickets with the FAS.

They have bought packages costing between S$60 and S$150, offered separately by Walter Koh and Akbar Hashim, two old hands who used to organise football trips during the Malaysia Cup days.

Koh has so far around 120 fans travelling with him while Akbar already has bookings to fill up five 40-seater buses. They both anticipate they will add more buses after the result on Saturday with a surge in the demand for tickets.

"Worse come to worse, if the FAS don't have any more tickets, I'll ask my contacts in Malaysia to get me some more," said Akbar.

But demand across the Causeway will be just as high, according to Syed Amin, the former president of the Selangor Fan Club. He will be among the Malaysians who took up the allocation of 500 tickets here for travelling fans. "Matches between our two countries are always hot and we have 300 supporters still desperately trying to get hold of tickets for Saturday's game. "So, you can expect Bukit Jalil to be packed next Thursday."