Organisers said that the match between the national football squad and Greek Olympiakos club was a friendly match and business was not the most important thing but the ticket prices for this match are very high.

Tickets for the Vietnam-Olympic Brazil last year were VND700,000, VND500,000, VND300,000 and VND200,000.

In a press conference introducing the match, the Director of Pham & Associates Pham Quang Vinh, the representative of Olympiakos in Vietnam, announced that there will be four types of tickets, priced at VND500,000 ($28), VND350,000 ($20), VND250,000 ($14) and VND150,000 ($8.8). VND250,000 tickets will be offered in the highest number.

The above price levels are a little lower than those for the match between the national squad and Olympic Brazil last year, which holds the record for ticket revenues.

Olympiakos will visit Vietnam as part of a plan to advertise the name of Intralot SA in Vietnam. It is said that Intralot is covering all expenditures for the trip to Vietnam of Olympiakos. The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) will have to pay for costs inside Vietnam.

Meanwhile, VFF had to pay $500,000 to get Olympic Brazil in Vietnam, plus other expenditures for the Brazilian team in Vietnam.

The prices of tickets of this match were set at VND700,000, VND500,000, VND300,000 and VND200,000, which are very high compared to per capita income of Vietnamese people. However, football fans accepted the prices because Olympic Brazil came to Vietnam with many stars, including Ronaldinho and Pato.

Olympiakos is one of the leading football clubs in Greece but it can’t compare with Manchester United, Barcelona or AC Milan. Though the club promised to bring its best players to Vietnam, the list of players provided to the media by Pham & Associates doesn’t have the Serbian captain Predrag Djordjevic.

Since the national squad won the championship of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2008, its brand value has risen. However, it is difficult to explain why VFF sells such expensive tickets at this moment of time, when everyone is being hit by economic slowdown.

At the press conference, this question was answered not by VFF officials, but the representative of Olympiakos in Vietnam, Pham Quang Vinh.

Speaking to reporters on the sideline, a member of the organising board said that they are trying to reduce ticket prices.

VietNamNet/TP