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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said he could not guarantee all the stadiums for the soccer tournament would be full in 2012 after a sluggish start to ticket sales compared with all the other events which have already sold out.
Asked in an interview with Reuters whether all the soccer tickets would be sold, he replied: "I really don't know.
"I always thought of all the Olympic tickets they were going to be the most difficult ones to sell because the football market is quite saturated in this country."
Soccer is traditionally one of the biggest Olympic revenue spinners, with sell-out crowds treated in the past to glimpses of the world's leading young players including Argentina's World Player of the Year Lionel Messi in Beijing in 2008.
About 500,000 tickets have been so sold so far, with matches at Wembley Stadium in London, where the final will be played, thought to have been outselling other stadiums.
However, about1.5 million soccer tickets remain unsold.
While England, football's birthplace, regularly attracts huge crowds for Premier League matches, fans have seemingly struggled to get excited about the 16-team men's tournament, which is an Under-23 competition with three over-age players allowed, or the 12-team women's tournament with no age limit.
One reason is that British teams, rather than separate ones representing England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, will take part in the Games, and a debate about who will play and who will be the manager remains unresolved.
The issue mainly concerns the men's team and has left London's organisers with the difficult task of trying to sell about two million soccer tickets, nearly a third of all those on offer in Britain and the European Union.
"I just always thought that was going to be very difficult (to sell the soccer tickets), so I'm not surprised by the fact they've proved the most difficult to shift," Robertson added.
Soccer tickets will go on sale for a third time later this year with prices between 20 and 185 pounds ($32 and $302).
As well as Wembley, soccer will also be staged at Old Trafford, Hampden Park in Glasgow, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, St James' Park in Newcastle and the City of Coventry Stadium.
The tournament will kick off two days ahead of the July 27 opening ceremony because of the heavy schedule.
GOLD MEDALS
Britain won the first two official soccer tournaments in 1908 and 1912, but have not reached the Olympic finals since 1960. They last entered a team for the 1972 Munich Olympics but were eliminated in the qualifiers.
No British team have taken part since because the home nations have not wanted to jeopardise their individual memberships of world soccer's governing body FIFA.
There is a widespread belief, certainly among the Scots, Welsh and Irish, that if they allow their players to take part in a British team political pressure from other FIFA members could mount for them to always play as a British team.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has repeatedly said this will not be the case but attempts to bring together players from the home nations for 2012 have still been strongly resisted and mean it is likely that only English players will take part.
Former England captain David Beckham has been mooted as one of the three permitted over-age players, and his presence would certainly help boost sluggish sales.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has suggested offering any unsold tickets to local schoolchildren to avoid the embarrassment of empty seats.
But Robertson suggested soccer fans may be leaving their purchases until nearer the matches.
"It wouldn't surprise me if there didn't continue to be some football tickets available until quite close to the event," he said.
"The extraordinary thing about tickets really is not the football tickets that have not sold but the huge numbers of everything else that has.
"I don't think any other Olympic city has found itself in a position 13 months out from the Games when it has sold out of tickets.
"Personally, I was surprised. I knew there would be high demand for tickets, I was surprised by just how high the demand was." ($1 = 0.613 British Pounds)
(Editing by Mike Collett/Mitch Phillips)
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Asked in an interview with Reuters whether all the soccer tickets would be sold, he replied: "I really don't know.
"I always thought of all the Olympic tickets they were going to be the most difficult ones to sell because the football market is quite saturated in this country."
Soccer is traditionally one of the biggest Olympic revenue spinners, with sell-out crowds treated in the past to glimpses of the world's leading young players including Argentina's World Player of the Year Lionel Messi in Beijing in 2008.
About 500,000 tickets have been so sold so far, with matches at Wembley Stadium in London, where the final will be played, thought to have been outselling other stadiums.
However, about1.5 million soccer tickets remain unsold.
While England, football's birthplace, regularly attracts huge crowds for Premier League matches, fans have seemingly struggled to get excited about the 16-team men's tournament, which is an Under-23 competition with three over-age players allowed, or the 12-team women's tournament with no age limit.
One reason is that British teams, rather than separate ones representing England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, will take part in the Games, and a debate about who will play and who will be the manager remains unresolved.
The issue mainly concerns the men's team and has left London's organisers with the difficult task of trying to sell about two million soccer tickets, nearly a third of all those on offer in Britain and the European Union.
"I just always thought that was going to be very difficult (to sell the soccer tickets), so I'm not surprised by the fact they've proved the most difficult to shift," Robertson added.
Soccer tickets will go on sale for a third time later this year with prices between 20 and 185 pounds ($32 and $302).
As well as Wembley, soccer will also be staged at Old Trafford, Hampden Park in Glasgow, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, St James' Park in Newcastle and the City of Coventry Stadium.
The tournament will kick off two days ahead of the July 27 opening ceremony because of the heavy schedule.
GOLD MEDALS
Britain won the first two official soccer tournaments in 1908 and 1912, but have not reached the Olympic finals since 1960. They last entered a team for the 1972 Munich Olympics but were eliminated in the qualifiers.
No British team have taken part since because the home nations have not wanted to jeopardise their individual memberships of world soccer's governing body FIFA.
There is a widespread belief, certainly among the Scots, Welsh and Irish, that if they allow their players to take part in a British team political pressure from other FIFA members could mount for them to always play as a British team.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has repeatedly said this will not be the case but attempts to bring together players from the home nations for 2012 have still been strongly resisted and mean it is likely that only English players will take part.
Former England captain David Beckham has been mooted as one of the three permitted over-age players, and his presence would certainly help boost sluggish sales.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has suggested offering any unsold tickets to local schoolchildren to avoid the embarrassment of empty seats.
But Robertson suggested soccer fans may be leaving their purchases until nearer the matches.
"It wouldn't surprise me if there didn't continue to be some football tickets available until quite close to the event," he said.
"The extraordinary thing about tickets really is not the football tickets that have not sold but the huge numbers of everything else that has.
"I don't think any other Olympic city has found itself in a position 13 months out from the Games when it has sold out of tickets.
"Personally, I was surprised. I knew there would be high demand for tickets, I was surprised by just how high the demand was." ($1 = 0.613 British Pounds)
(Editing by Mike Collett/Mitch Phillips)
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