World soccer's governing body FIFA is investigating why there were thousands of empty seats in Friday's World Cup opening match in Seoul and Sunday's Group E match in Sapporo between Germany and Saudi Arabia, FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said Sunday.
Cooper said some seats in Sapporo Dome were "killed" because they provided less than adequate perspective, though many of the empty seats were very prominent covered by TV cameras located in the opposite block.
The killed seats were caused by the transformation of Sapporo Dome, once built for a ball park, into a soccer stadium, Cooper said, adding that the killed seats were not for sale.
When asked if there have been any protests from broadcasters, Cooper said there was none.
Cooper also explained that FIFA's ticketing representative Byrom and local organizing committees had to leave some tickets unsold considering various circumstances, citing the example that installing a single TV camera could easily make a hundred seats surrounding it unusable.
However, admitting his explanation cannot adequately account for all of the empty seats, Cooper said FIFA plans to reveal more information on the ticketing issue in a press conference held Monday or Wednesday.
"It's an extremely complicated issue," Cooper said.
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