Ruben Sprich/Reuters
FIFA on Monday released thousands of tickets to this summer’s Women’s World Cup to the fans who ordered them online. But for some, the confirmation that they would be seeing some of the world’s best teams in France next month was accompanied by a disconcerting surprise: the seats they had bought, including some of the most expensive ones for the semifinals and final, are not together.
Some spouses were not placed next to their partners. Parents discovered they would be multiple rows away from their young children. Friends and families who ordered tickets in groups downloaded them to find that they would be scattered in different rows, or even in different sections.